NORRISTOWN, Pa. – A photographer is expected to plead guilty to charges that he killed a Canadian porn actress a year ago, his attorney said Tuesday. Defense attorney Richard Winters said prosecutors had agreed to drop a first-degree murder charge in exchange for a guilty plea to third-degree murder by Anthony Frederick, 47, of Lower Providence in the death of actress Natel King.

Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor confirmed the offer by prosecutors, which he said was made after they went to Canada to consult with King’s family. Assistant District Attorney Barbara Ashcroft said Frederick is expected to enter the plea next week.

Authorities said Frederick admitted stabbing King, 23, also called Taylor Sumers, at a Conshohocken studio after a photo shoot in February 2004. Her body was found almost a month later in a ravine near the Schuylkill River in Whitemarsh.

Winters said Frederick killed the victim because he did not have enough money to pay her for the shoot. “He is very remorseful, a changed man,” Winters said.

Frederick was prepared to testify against his former assistant, Jennifer Mitkus, 30, of Oaks, at her preliminary hearing Tuesday. But she waived the hearing after prosecutors agreed to withdraw charges of theft, criminal attempt to commit auto theft and criminal conspiracy, Montgomery County Chief Public Defender Carolyn Carluccio said.

Prosecutors allege that Mitkus helped clean up the murder scene, researched ways that investigators try to spot blood traces and also stabbed the dead woman. She is awaiting trial on charges of abuse of a corpse, hindering apprehension and other offenses.

Carluccio said Mitkus is looking forward to getting “her story on the record.”