A 56-year-old woman in DeKalb County, Atlanta, received a life sentence Tuesday over the 2009 murder of her husband for $1.2 million in life insurance.
Judge Gail Flake said she was “surprised” that prosecutors did not ask for the maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, based on the “brutal evidence and the callous action” of Pamela Ballin. But Flake still adhered to the prosecutor’s recommendation.
A report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Ballin bashed her husband’s head with a statue about 18 inches tall depicting a man holding a spear and a woman on his shoulder. Ballin reportedly took the spear and stabbed her husband. She tried to make it look like there had been a home invasion with intruders carrying out the attack.
According to the paper, the prosecutor did not to ask for the maximum sentence because of the age and background of the case. The recommendation means that Ballin will be eligible for parole in 30 years.
Ballin was first convicted in 2014, but a judge released her from custody because he wasn’t sure she had received a fair trial. She was arrested and sentenced to life a month later after the judge decided she was treated fairly – but Ballin managed to win a new trial.
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