A St. Paul woman pleaded guilty Thursday to killing the wife of her ex-lover during a dispute over the husband's contraction of a sexually transmitted disease.

Whitney T. Kizart, 22, who was accused of giving the ex-lover herpes, and initially faced a second-degree murder charge, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in a plea deal with Ramsey County prosecutors.

She is to be sentenced Aug. 13.

Kizart fatally stabbed Jennifer Linnear in the chest when Linnear and her husband, Robert Linnear, went to Kizart's West Side apartment last May to confront Kizart about the alleged herpes transmission.

Jennifer Linnear was angry with her husband because she had learned that she had just contracted the disease, too, according to a criminal complaint filed against Kizart in Ramsey County District Court.

When confronted with the accusation outside the apartment, Kizart denied to her ex-lover that she had given him herpes, and she fatally stabbed Jennifer Linnear after the wife got out of a sport-utility vehicle and yelled at her.

ANTHONY LONETREE