Jury finds Augusta woman guilty of killing husband
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The jury deliberated for less than three hours Friday before finding Sandra Dales guilty on all counts of the death of her husband.
She was on trial accused of killing her husband, Eddie Cruey, and burying his body. The jury began deliberating at 3:36 p.m. Friday.
The state and the defense had their final pleas to the jury. She is facing life in prison with or without parole on top of 10-plus years for concealing the death of Cruey.
Dales has been indicted on three counts: one count of malice murder, one count of felony murder, and one count of concealing the death of another person.
Sentencing is set in 30 days.
What happened on Friday
The state was given two chances to speak on how Dales had plans to kill Cruey and didn’t have a second thought about it. The defense had one chance to show how all of their evidence proves she was struggling with domestic violence for years and that the reason she killed him was to protect herself.
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“She had that time to think about things before she beat that man to his death. She clearly knew how to leave the home in the past. From the defense witnesses, she clearly knew how to leave and call for help. I know beating Mr. Cruey to death was not the answer,” said DK Huff, state assistant district attorney.
And the defense closed by hitting home that this is a system failure and this cycle of domestic violence will continue with the innocent going to jail and no changes from higher powers.
“This case is not about one single woman struggling for survival. It’s about the systemic failures of law enforcement to protect victims of domestic violence and that’s what we saw in the state’s case. Sandra had good people in her life, people who loved her ... loved her and Eddie. But having good people isn’t enough to keep us safe,” said Jennifer Huff, defense.
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