SHARE Latosha Twilley

By Yolanda Jones of The Commercial Appeal

The woman now accused of murdering her husband and stuffing his body in an attic crawl space previously pleaded guilty to having sex with a teenage boy, then shooting him in the back 10 years ago, court records show.

Latosha Starks-Twilley, 38, was initially charged with abuse of a corpse after her husband's body was found Saturday. However, on Monday afternoon, those charges were upgraded to first-degree murder. She remains behind bars at Jail East, and is due in court on July 5.

That follows an incident on Dec. 18, 2006, in which she was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy, then shooting him in the back as he slept in his bed, records show. In that case, she alleged the boy raped her, leading her to open fire, the affidavit said.

In 2007, Starks-Twilley was indicted on charges of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated statutory rape. She remained in jail for four years awaiting trial, unable to meet her bond of $50,000. In 2011, she pleaded guilty to aggravated statutory rape and received three years probation. She also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and received six years probation, according to court records. The attempted murder charge was dismissed.

She was released from jail that same year, but was added to the state's sex registry after the aggravated statutory rape plea.

In Saturday's incident, police were called to a home in the 4100 block of Cottonwood after family members of Waddell Twilley, 47, couldn't reach him by phone.

They told police they could hear his phone ringing in the attic, so officers asked Starks-Twilley for the key to the attic door. That's when they found Twilley's body stuffed inside a plastic container, then covered with clothes, dirt, concrete mix and other debris.

Starks-Twilley told police she hadn't seen her husband since that morning. She told police she had no explanation why his body was in the attic.