MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – A man accused of maiming his estranged wife in a 2007 lye attack plans to change his plea, averting a trial at which she planned to testify.

Herbert Rodgers, 53, who has pleaded not guilty in the attack, has reached an agreement with prosecutors who will – along with Rodgers’ attorney – ask a judge to set a date for a plea change and sentencing, according to Deputy Orange County State’s Attorney Robert DiBartolo.

A status conference on Rodgers’ case is set for Wednesday in Vermont District Court in Chelsea.

Dibartolo would not give details of the agreement Tuesday. Rodgers’ attorney, Kevin Griffin, declined comment.

Rodgers’ ex-wife, Carmen Tarleton, of Thetford, was blinded and suffered burns over 80 percent of her body in the attack.

“I lost it, I just lost it,” Rodgers said as he was being arrested, according to a police affidavit.

Judge Mary Miles Teachout recently rejected Rodgers’ bid to have incriminating statements he made to police after the attack thrown out.

Rodgers is being held without bail.

On June 10, 2007, he allegedly broke into Tarleton’s house in Thetford, tied her up and dumped industrial-strength lye on her.

Tarleton, a mother of two and a nurse at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., was left with a broken arm, a broken eye socket and burns that have required more than 40 operations, including dozens of skin grafts and a synethetic cornea transplant in her left eye.

She declined comment Tuesday on the plea agreement.