NAPLES, Fla. (AP) - A southwest Florida jury has found a man guilty of second-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of his estranged wife at a hospital.
Jeffrey Moretz was convicted Friday in Collier County. His wife died at the scene at a Naples hospital where she was visiting a co-worker in July 2011. Court records showed the couple were divorcing and in foreclosure. Moretz turned the gun on himself after shooting his wife, but he survived.
The Naples Daily News reports (https://bit.ly/1fpjAKy ) that Moretz’s attorneys asked jurors to find him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter. They argued that the killing was committed in the heat of passion.
Prosecutors said Moretz was angry and controlling and driven to violence by his wife’s new-found independence.
Moretz will be sentenced March 21.
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Information from: Naples (Fla.) Daily News, https://www.naplesnews.com
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