A woman pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree murder for killing her bigamist husband just hours before he was to leave for Morocco to visit his second wife.

Myra Morton, 48, was upset about the new marriage and her husband's plans to have children with the younger woman, authorities have said. She shot her 47-year-old husband, Jereleigh Morton, twice in the head in August while he slept, and initially blamed an intruder.

She faces from five to 20 years in prison, defense lawyers said.

Myra Morton's actions were caused by emotional turmoil, her lawyers said.

"This is a classic case of 'one can only be pushed so far,'" defense attorney Timothy Woodward said. "Everybody has their point. And Myra was pushed to that limit. There's only so much one can expect a woman to endure."

Jereleigh Morton met his second wife, 37-year-old Zahra Toural, last year on the Internet, prosecutors said. In keeping with Muslim custom, Myra Morton traveled to Morocco to bless the marriage, but police say she grew to resent the arrangement.

Her husband allegedly said that if she didn't like it, she should get a divorce.

The Mortons had converted to Islam about 20 years ago.

As Myra Morton's resentment about the second marriage grew, she wrote the U.S. State Department a letter in April 2007 in which she said Toural had terrorist ties. She hoped the letter would keep Toural away from the U.S., authorities have said.

Toural last month responded with a defamation suit against Myra Morton.

In a response filed this week, Myra Morton argued that Toural recklessly interfered with her marriage and her emotional well-being, and that Toural therefore owes her damages.

Myra Morton spent about 20 years working at Temple University as a secretary before she and her husband received a reported $8 million medical settlement in 2005 over the death of a teenage daughter. They moved with their surviving daughter from a North Philadelphia rowhouse to a $1 million house in the suburbs.

"All she (Morton) cares about are that her daughter and her granddaughter get their inheritance, and are provided for," defense lawyer Brian McMonagle said. "That is always a concern, particularly when you have so many hands reaching for this money."

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