Woman Fatally Shoots Husband, Stages Break-In To Claim Insurance Payout; Gets Jailed

A 60-year-old Missouri woman who murdered her husband and staged a break-in at home to claim insurance payout has been sentenced to life in prison.

Viola Bowman from Kansas City was sentenced Wednesday to life without a possibility of parole after she was found guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in a trial that ended last month. Viola was found guilty of fatally shooting her husband, Albert “Rusty” Bowman, at the couple's home in 2012, in a "cold and calculated murder" as described by prosecutors, Law & Crime reported.

Viola continued to maintain her innocence and rejected a plea deal that would have resulted in her being released for time served if she had agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

“I did not murder my husband,” Viola told the court during the sentencing hearing Wednesday. She then turned around to address two of her daughters who were present in the court for the proceeding and said: “I’m sorry you lost your father. … I suffer every day without your father here.”

Rusty was found dead at the couple's residence in Northland home on Nov. 7, 2012. When emergency services responded to a 911 call made by Viola, Rusty's body was found covered in blood on a reclining armchair in his house.

The responding officers noticed that Viola's demeanor was odd and she made inconsistent statements to the investigators regarding the alleged robbery, prosecutors told the court.

Although Viola claimed robbery, the investigators noticed that items like a laptop, car keys, and a wallet were not stolen from the home. They found evidence that Viola benefitted from her husband's insurance payout after his death, The Kansas City Star reported.

Viola shot her husband twice, striking him in the head and chest, and then staged a break-in, prosecutors told the court. However, the woman claimed that she was at a Walmart during the shooting and came home to witness the most "traumatic, terrifying event of her lifetime."

During the sentencing, Judge Alexander said the court is convinced that Viola is guilty and cannot be granted leniency in sentencing for a first-degree murder conviction.