Brave Testimony

Less than two years after they married, the marriage ended when the husband died.

The couple met when the husband was a security guard also attending college. They married two months after he’d enlisted in the army.

The wife, a 30-year-old stay at home mom, gave birth to their daughter prematurely. The baby had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Her husband, an army soldier, stayed home from deployment to be there for his wife and care for his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

The military family lived on base. One evening, the wife had been drinking, and when a friend of the soldier stopped by to borrow something he found the couple in an argument. The wife followed the two men outside and continued to yell at her husband. According to reported court documents, a few minutes after the husband went back inside, a shot rang out.

Her eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship witnessed the shooting. The wife quickly gathered her two children and left the base. As soon as she cleared the base gate, she made a U-turn and tried to re-enter the base. Guards at the gatehouse detained her and later arrested her.

The eight-year-old called her father, who lived in another state, and told him what happened. He called the emergency services to send medics to the home. They transported the military man to the hospital, where he passed away.

It took one year for her case to reach the trial phase. Her defense was that she thought her husband had been watching child pornography online. There was no evidence to substantiate that defense. The jury found her guilty of second-degree murder. A judge sentenced her to almost 25 years in federal prison, where there is no early release.

A U.S Attorney associated with the case said about the eight-year-old daughter,

“The Court heard brave testimony from [the wife’s] own daughter who witnessed her mother shoot her stepfather in a fury.”

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Stars and Stripes

All data and information provided is for information and research purposes only and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. Criminal cases may have been appealed or verdicts overturned since I researched the case. All information is provided on an as-is basis.