JEFFESON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The wife of a former mid-Missouri police officer who was convicted in his 2011 shooting death has died behind bars.
44-year-old Sandra Plunkett died Sept. 21 at the Chillicothe Correction Center, a women’s prison. No cause of death was listed in her obituary and the funeral home handling arrangements could not comment.
Prosecutors say Plunkett, of Holts Summit, shot her husband, Paul Plunkett, while he was in bed. She originally told officers she saw a man leaving the area with a rifle, but later confessed to the murder.
She claimed during her trial that she shot her husband in self-defense after suffering years of abuse.
Prosecutors argued that Plunkett shot her husband to collect a life insurance policy to support her heroin addiction.