Gwendolyn Greene (Jail photo)

GATESVILLE (February 13, 2012)—Former Copperas Cove High School student Gwendolyn Greene, 20, pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping Monday in an incident in 2011 that led to her mother’s death.

A jury was selected Monday to decide punishment.

Greene, who was then 19, and a man she identified as her fiancée, Steve Edwin Barker, 31, both of Copperas Cove, were arrested in April 2011 and charged in the death of her mother Catherine Jackson Greene.

Greene told investigators that she struck her mother during an argument, knocked her down, kicked her, beat her about the head with a lead pipe and that she and her boyfriend then bound the 57-year-old woman before placing her in the trunk of a car, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Police found the older woman’s body in the trunk of a burned out car after a fiery rollover on a rural Coryell County road.

Barker and Gwendolyn Greene were injured in the crash and were flown to Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

They were arrested after they were discharged.

Gwendolyn Greene, who police say was a Copperas Cove High School student at the time, was originally charged with assault with a deadly weapon-serious bodily injury and family violence.

Barker was charged with aggravated kidnapping

They were ordered held in lieu of bonds of $500,000 each.

Barker is still awaiting trial.

The silver Honda Accord in which Greene and Barker were riding rolled over twice and burst into flames on Lutheran Church Road seven miles northwest of Copperas Cove.

Investigators said the car was traveling at a high rate of speed and was swerving before it crashed.

Gwendolyn Greene called 911 at least twice after the accident and told a dispatcher that Barker had been ejected and that her mother was in the trunk, according to the affidavit.

When Copperas Cove firefighters arrived at the accident scene in response to a 911 call from Greene, both victims were already out of the car, authorities said.

After dousing the flames, firefighters opened the trunk of the burned-out car and discovered a body, which was burned beyond recognition.