OTTAWA _ A 20-year-old man has admitted to killing his adoptive mother in June 2007 after an argument in their Ottawa home.

Aaron Howard pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the death of 61-year-old Deborah Frankel-Howard.

Howard has been in police custody since last summer, when he turned himself in to RCMP after fleeing to Manitoba.

Police say as he headed toward the United States border, he flipped a coin to choose his fate: heads to flee, and tails to turn himself in.

Frankel-Howard was known for a 1989 study for Health and Welfare Canada on family violence. (CFRA) © 2007 The Canadian Press