Kevin James Lee.
A man was sentenced to lifestyles in jail with the opportunity of parole for murdering his pregnant wife and burying her frame in a grave behind their house. It took greater than three decades for defendant Kevin James Lee, 56, to face justice for killing Ann Margaret Berry, 29.
The Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office in Georgia announced the development on Friday. They credit Berry’s sister with fighting most of these years.
“District Attorney Herb Cranford needs to put across his immense recognize for the sufferer’s sister, who by no means stopped having a look for her and who fought for justice for 30 years,” they wrote. “Without her, this case would not have ended in a to blame verdict.”
The charges have been murder and concealing the demise of any other.
According to prosecutors, Berry got bored to death with Lee physically abusing her. She referred to as her sister on July 4, 1991, asking if she and her youngsters could transfer in together with her.
“In the spring of 1991, the victim discovered she used to be pregnant with her third kid and seemed very serious about it,” prosecutors wrote. “However, friends and family described the victim and defendant’s relationship as tumultuous. They argued often and the defendant was known to push, slap, and hit her. The victim’s family saw bruises and marks at the sufferer’s frame and face, and saw holes in the partitions of the home the place the sufferer have been thrown into the partitions.”
According to officers, Berry referred to as her sister the next July 31 at roughly 8 p.m. Her sister heard Lee yelling at Berry, as well as the kids crying.
“This name used to be especially strange because the sufferer never referred to as all the way through fights and would normally discuss to her sister only after those fights,” prosecutors wrote. “The sufferer said she used to be packing her and the kids’s property and would be driving to her sister’s area in about an hour. The sufferer by no means confirmed up and was once by no means heard from once more.”
The sister tried to reach Berry, even driving by way of the house. Lee claimed Berry ran off with a boyfriend and deserted the youngsters, but the sister knew Berry didn't have a boyfriend.
Lee moved with the kids to Kansas in not up to a week. The sister cleaned out the outdated home, finding Berry’s clothes, jewellery, make-up, and different private pieces, prosecutors stated.
Lee advised various tales about Berry’s disappearance over the years, government said. He would say she left with a white guy in a van, a Black guy in a truck, or with a cocaine broker.
Lee, however, by no means filed a missing individual’s file for Berry, who was his wife and the mum of his youngsters, prosecutors said. It was her sister who worked in this, filing lacking person’s experiences in 1991 and 1997.
Two boys camping in the woods on April 15, 2011 discovered Berry’s secret, unmarked grave when digging a hearth pit, prosecutors said. This used to be lower than one hundred yards behind the house.
After a year of investigating, police got an arrest warrant on Lee, but government best arrested him 2018 after they discovered him residing in California. Prosecutors said existence with the potential of parole was the only allowable sentence on the time of the homicide.
[Booking picture via Coweta County Sheriff’s Office]
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