A Florida woman has been sentenced to life in prison for her part in a life insurance murder plot that resulted in the death of her husband.
Denise Williams was also given another 30 years for conspiracy by a circuit judge this week, the Associated Press reported.
She was convicted late last year of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Williams conspired with Brian Winchester – her husband’s best friend and her lover – to murder her husband on their sixth wedding anniversary in Dec. 2000. Prosecutors claimed that Williams planned the killing in a scheme to claim on a $1.75 million life insurance payout.
Winchester was a financial planner and insurance agent, and he had sold Mike Williams a $1 million insurance policy several months before his disappearance.
On Dec. 16, 2000, Mike Williams left early morning to go duck hunting. When he went missing that day, authorities initially speculated that he had fallen from his boat and that his body had been consumed by alligators. His disappearance led to a massive search.
Denise Williams and Brian Winchester later married in December 2005, but divorced in 2016.
The case had gone cold, but came back into the spotlight after Winchester kidnapped Williams at gunpoint in 2016. For his crime, Winchester was sentenced to 20 years in prison after making a deal with prosecutors, but ultimately played a key role in solving the case.
Winchester testified that he had an affair with Williams and shot her husband in 2000. In 2017, he even helped authorities find the buried body. Williams’ attorneys, however, argued that Winchester lied to get even with her.
