Woman found guilty of killing her husband

The court yesterday sentenced a woman to 14 years imprisonment after she was found guilty of killing her husband.

Wilma Anor, was, however, convicted only of homicide instead of parricide because the prosecution failed to present the marriage certificate of the couple to prove that they were married to each other.

Regional Trial Court judge Olegario Sarmiento, Jr. said the crime of parricide, when involving couples is applicable only to a legitimate relationship.

Richard Tabal, who was drinking with Wilma's husband Claudio on the evening of March 8, 2003, testified in court that at past midnight, Wilma said that she would kill her husband and then commit suicide.

Judith Anor, the 18-year-old daughter of the couple, also testified that she was talking to friends outside their house at about 3 a.m. on March 9 when she heard her parents having an argument inside the house. Minutes later, she then heard her father cry for help, and, when she got inside their house, she saw her mother holding a bloody knife and her father, already wounded. It was Judith's brother, Giovani, who got the knife from their mother.

The accused entered a not guilty plea during the arraignment of the case but refused to present any evidence to defend herself.

"The testimonial evidence of Richard Tabal about the fact that Wilma uttered her intention to kill her husband and the testimony of Judith seeing her mother holding the blood-stained weapon, compose the circumstantial evidence from which this court inferred to be proven and such produced a conviction beyond reasonable doubt in its mind," the judge ruled.