Though holding tight onto a claim of her innocence, a woman has been sentenced for murdering her neighbor in a botched plan that was allegedly meant to place blame on her former husband instead, as reported by the Associated Press for the New York Times.
T.R., 45, was convicted to a life in prison for the 2001 shooting death of her neighbor, D.W., 20, in northwest Iowa.
T.R. had claimed that in an effort to protect herself and her three children, she shot D.W. to death when he and another man broke into her home and tried to strangle her with a pair of pantyhose.
She reported the same allegations on television – before she was found guilty. Instead, jurors leaned toward the prosecutor's argument and believed that T.R. had orchestrated a poorly thought out plot that was meant to direct police to arrest her ex-husband instead. It appeared that T.R., in her haste to tie up loose ends, shot D.W. to death to keep her plans from ever being discovered.
On November 7 T.R. was found guilty of first degree murder. She is now facing mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The state of Iowa has no death penalty.
T.R. has stated that she plans to appeal.
T.R., in claiming that she was unaware that she had shot her young neighbor, cried in court and said, "All I know is what I experienced that night and that I was defending my family from two people and (D.W.) was one of them."
In an attempt to deny her crime to D.W.'s mother, T.R. said, "I would rather spend the rest of my life in jail for a crime I didn't commit and have my three children alive then lose one of my children and be free. I didn't murder your son."
D.W.'s sister, A.P., 24, told T.R. "You killed his hopes and dreams. He missed everything, all because of you."
A younger sibling, B.W., 21, was too overcome to speak and had her victim's impact statement read by a victim witness coordinator. The coordinator, S.A., recounted shared experiences that the two had over the years.
M.W., the victim's mother, admitted to having issues with both depression and alcoholism since she lost her son. She said in court, "Not one day I don't envision my son's body, see his blood. He did not deserve to be so cruelly taken. I don't deserve to have to live my life with this pain, without my child."
Prosecutors had successfully argued that T.R., in trying to lay blame on her ex-husband, had lured the unknowing D.W. into her home. From there she had him write, in his own hand, that her former husband had hired him to break into her home and then murder her and her son.
Then, after he finished writing, she used two guns to shoot him nine times.
Prosecutors further alleged that T.R. was motivated by child custody issues. The plot was meant to give her the upper hand before an upcoming hearing that was set to possibly cost her custody of her son and the monthly $1,000 she received in child support payments.
A criminal scheme such as this one undoubtedly cost the defendant more than child custody and loss of support payments. If you are facing criminal charges, no matter how severe, contact a criminal defense attorneyto best help you.
