(WXYZ) — Tina Talbot, the Waterford woman who pleaded guilty to killing her husband after allegedly enduring years of abuse, has been granted parole.
Talbot spoke exclusively to 7 Action News reporter Alan Campbell about her release set for Nov. 17.
“I can’t even tell you. The feeling when I walked out that door and looked at that paper and saw I had my parole, I just I cried,” said Talbot over the phone from the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional facility.
Talbot was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for the 2018 killing of her husband. Since pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, Talbot has remained at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility.
Tonight I talk exclusively to Tina Talbot. The Waterford woman who killed her husband in 2018 after years of violent abuse. Tina tells me she was granted parole. November 17, Tina will be a free woman. See you tonight at 10 on @tv20detroit then 11 @wxyzdetroit pic.twitter.com/CzEWApN2W7
— ALAN CAMPBELL (@AlanCampbellTV) July 21, 2020
“It means so much to me," she said. "I never would have made it through this experience knowing all of them were behind me."
In an exclusive interview with 7 Action News in April 2019, Talbot detailed the days leading up to her husband's death.
"He said I’m going to kill your son and I’m going to do it in front of you," Talbot said of her husband Milosz Szcepanowicz. "And I’m going to watch how you suffer when I slit his throat from one ear to the other and I put his blood all over you."
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Talbot said the days leading up to Sept. 14, 2018, were the darkest and most violent she has lived. She was beaten and raped daily, she said, and the threats towards her and her 7-year-old son with autism became more real.
"All week long he kept saying, 'this week is going to culminate with somebody dying... and it’s not going to be me,'" Talbot recalled her husband saying. "Basically, it was just a week long of torture. He’s telling me that he was going to pull my fingernails out and he was going to pour salt where the fingernails had been. Everything we did, we did together for the rest of the week. I wasn’t allowed to go out of the house without my husband, we always had to do everything together."
Following Talbot's imprisonment, petitions began circulating online with more than 100,000 signatures asking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to pardon Talbot.
Earlier this year, on Jan. 27, Talbot went before a member of the parole board in a private meeting to plead her case.
"It is still very emotional and raw for her what’s going on and what happened to her," Talbot's friend Janene Staley told 7 Action News back in January.
Talbot's friend was there during the private meeting held with a member of the parole board.
"He talked to her a little about her prior life, prior to that week," Staley said. "But then really wanted to hear from her what was her perspective on exactly what happened that week and what led up to her doing what she was doing. Why did she feel she had to take that measure."
On Monday, Talbot said that she wasn't sure if her parole day would ever come. Now, nearly six months later, Talbot has been granted parole.
“There were times where I didn’t think I’d make it. I mean, I was just wanting to get through it and get to the next day,” Talbot said.
She says there are so many things she wants to do when she gets out. But most of all, she's looking forward to seeing her son Phillip.
“He was always my focus," she said. "I just had to get back to Phillip. We have this close bond and it’s like I need him as much as he needs me. I probably need him more you know.”
Talbot says she can’t wait to get out and just be in a quiet room. She also says there are so many things she wants to do with her Phillip to make up for list time.
