Murder conviction upheld for DeKalb County man who murdered wife, drove body to Virginia
Denis Allaben
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a DeKalb County man who killed his wife and drove her body and their children hundreds of miles.
Juries convicted Dennis Allaben three different times for the murder of his wife, 43-year-old Maureen Allaben.
The supreme court overturned the first two convictions but not the third trial in December 2016.
Officials say on Jan. 4, 2010, Maureen's coworkers became concerned when she didn't come to work and didn't answer any of their phone calls. When they went to her house to check on her, they found it empty with Dennis Allaben's pickup truck gone.
Hours later, Dennis Allaben and his two children arrived at the home of his sister-in-law in Virginia, telling her that "there had been an accident," accusing his wife of making sexual recordings of him as well as poisoning him.
According to court documents, Allaben confessed to strangling his wife, then driving his children to the home with his wife's body in the back of the truck.
After leaving his children with his sister-in-law, Allaben drove back to Georgia, visited a former co-worker, and then turned himself in to police.
Officials say they found his wife's body wrapped in a blue moving blanket held in place in the back of the truck by duct tape. An autopsy revealed that she had been killed by a "sleeper" chokehold.
A judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole. The DeKalb County man had asked the court to declare a mistrial, arguing that the evidence was not sufficient that he intended to murder his wife.
But in the high court's decision, they say "the jury was authorized to infer from Allaben’s admissions and the medical examiner’s testimony that Maureen’s death was not an "accident," that Allaben’s actions demonstrated a
reckless disregard for human life that showed an abandoned and malignant heart, and, therefore, that Allaben was acting with malicious intent."