ATLANTA -- A 23-year-old man has pleaded guilty to involvement in a shooting that paralyzed renowned primatologist Shelly Williams, prosecutors in Atlanta say.

Kendall Bolden entered the plea Monday and is to be sentenced after the trial of his co-defendant, Elliott Mitchell, is complete, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

Williams, 53, was paralyzed from the waist down in November 2005 by a stray bullet that struck her in a shopping center. In court Monday, Bolden alleged he and Mitchell robbed a drug dealer and Mitchell's gun discharged when he pistol-whipped the man near the shopping center.

Williams is renowned for her work with primates in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo. She is credited with discovering a species of ape that seemed to be a cross between a chimpanzee and a gorilla and was preparing for a trip to the Congo to gather more information when she was shot.

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