A woman has gone on trial accused of murdering her snake breeder husband to avoid a divorce and so she could land a large insurance payout.
Lynlee Renick, whose age was not reported, is currently standing trial in the city of Columbia, in the southern US state of Missouri, accused of murdering her husband Ben Renick in 2017.
It is alleged that she shot her husband dead at his snake breeding business after discovering that he had a USD-1-million (GBP-750,000) life insurance policy and that she was listed as a beneficiary.
She allegedly planned to use the proceeds from the payout to attempt to rescue her struggling spa business.
Lynlee Renick had originally claimed that a snake had crushed her husband to death but investigators are said to have found shell casings leading to them opening an investigation for murder.
She was reported to the police by an ex-boyfriend and her lawyers claimed that another of her ex-boyfriends, named as Michael Humphrey, actually killed Ben Renick.
Lynlee Renick’s lawyer Tim Hesemann said that his client had been taking out the rubbish when she heard several shots being fired.
The lawyers for the defence have argued that the incident took place shortly after Lynlee Renick and Humphrey, who was reportedly found guilty for his involvement in the incident in October with sentencing scheduled for January, visited the victim to discuss divorce.
A key witness in the trial who is not facing charges is Ashley Shaw, who was an employee of Lynlee Renick’s and who made a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges.
She said that she was approached by Lynlee about murdering her husband and after a failed poisoning attempt, Shaw alleges that this is when they asked Humphrey to help with the killing.
Humphrey has also reportedly made a deal with prosecutors to have his sentence reduced in exchange for testimony against Lynlee Renick.
Prosecutor Kelly King said in her opening statement that the defendant did not want to divorce her husband because he believed that he would take their children and because she was listed as the only beneficiary on his life insurance policy. The names and ages of the couple’s children have not been revealed.
