Washington:
Albrecht Muth was sentenced on Wednesday, to 50 years in prison for the 2011 murder of his 91-year-old wife in Washington. He was an eccentric German man who at one point masqueraded as an Iraqi general.
He was convicted in January of killing his wife, Viola Drath, the German writer and socialite who was found dead in the couple's home in Washington's posh Georgetown neighbourhood in August 2011.
Mr Muth told police that his wife of more than 20 years had fallen in the bathroom, but an investigator concluded Ms Drath's death was staged and authorities ruled it was a homicide. Prosecutors said Muth beat and strangled his wife and then moved her body. A jury concluded that Drath's murder was especially heinous and cruel.
In a court document filed before Mr Muth's sentencing prosecutors called him "a career con-man" and "serial wife-abuser" and asked for a life sentence. Prosecutors said at various times Mr Muth had pretended to be a count, an army officer and an Iraqi general. They said he had previously punched his wife, choked her, threatened to kill her and hit her with a chair, but she declined to press charges.
"The facts of this unusual case, particularly when viewed in light of the history of the defendant's violence and other abuse toward Ms Drath, coupled with his life of lies, fabrications, fraud and deception, uniquely qualify him to spend the rest of his life in prison," prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Mr Muth had a long history of verbally and physically abusing his wife. They said Muth, who had no steady employment of his own, lived on a $2,000 monthly allowance from Ms Drath that had recently been reduced.
After her death, prosecutors said, Mr Muth produced a phony amendment to Ms Drath's will which purported to leave Mr Muth with up to $200,000 of his wife's estate.
He was convicted in January of killing his wife, Viola Drath, the German writer and socialite who was found dead in the couple's home in Washington's posh Georgetown neighbourhood in August 2011.
Mr Muth told police that his wife of more than 20 years had fallen in the bathroom, but an investigator concluded Ms Drath's death was staged and authorities ruled it was a homicide. Prosecutors said Muth beat and strangled his wife and then moved her body. A jury concluded that Drath's murder was especially heinous and cruel.
In a court document filed before Mr Muth's sentencing prosecutors called him "a career con-man" and "serial wife-abuser" and asked for a life sentence. Prosecutors said at various times Mr Muth had pretended to be a count, an army officer and an Iraqi general. They said he had previously punched his wife, choked her, threatened to kill her and hit her with a chair, but she declined to press charges.
"The facts of this unusual case, particularly when viewed in light of the history of the defendant's violence and other abuse toward Ms Drath, coupled with his life of lies, fabrications, fraud and deception, uniquely qualify him to spend the rest of his life in prison," prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Mr Muth had a long history of verbally and physically abusing his wife. They said Muth, who had no steady employment of his own, lived on a $2,000 monthly allowance from Ms Drath that had recently been reduced.
After her death, prosecutors said, Mr Muth produced a phony amendment to Ms Drath's will which purported to leave Mr Muth with up to $200,000 of his wife's estate.
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