Jury frees wife over husband’s murder

A seven member jury selected for the trial of a 33-year old woman over the murder of the husband has returned a verdict of not guilty.
     
Akosua Ode, has been accused of stabbing her spouse, Patrick Kofi Nketia, to death and held in prison custody for more than three years.
     
The incident happened on March 18, 2014, at Ash-Town in Kumasi, at about 1900 hours.
      
The couple had been forced to live at separate places after their ejection from a house at Trabuom, an arrangement, Ode was not comfortable with.
       
She therefore raised an amount GH¢1,500.00, gave it to the deceased husband, to rent a room where they could live together again.
       
The jury was told that, the accused, on the day of the incident, visited the husband only to find him with another woman, whose name was given as Abena Serwaah.
       
Ode got angry, held Nketia and demanded the return of her money. There was a scuffle, during which, the woman reportedly stabbed the man.
        
A co-tenant, Isaac Frimpong, rushed the deceased to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), where he later died.
        
An autopsy report gave the cause of his death as excessive bleeding from deep wounds in the abdomen and liver.
        
Nana Konadu Owusu Banahene, a State Attorney, led the prosecution and called six witnesses including a Pathologist at KATH, Dr. Paul Sampene.
        
After the High Court Judge, Justice Charles Adjei Wilson, pronounced the verdict, Ode fell into a trance – kept asking the prison officers whether she was dreaming or it was a reality that, she had regained her freedom.

Source: GNA