US-based Kenyan businesswoman, Sheila Wanjiku, has been found guilty of shooting and killing her husband three years ago.

She was charged with murdering Leonard Kibinge on April 15, 2014 at Gitaru village, Kikuyu constituency.

On Monday, Justice Jessie Lesiit found her guilty of pre-meditated murder.

The Star reports that the judge pointed out there was no direct evidence linking her to the murder as the weapon used in the crime was never recovered.

She, however, said circumstantial evidence and inconsistencies in Wanjiku’s account of events were her undoing.

“The murder weapon was not recovered and produced in court. Failure to do so was, however, not fatal to the prosecution’s case as police were not at the scene during the incident and the accused had time to dispose of the weapon.”

In her testimony, Wanjiku had claimed she and her husband were kidnapped that night and that it was the kidnappers who killed her husband.

The judge found it interesting that after the ‘kidnapping’ incident, Wanjiku bypassed Kikuyu police station which is a stone’s throw distance from the purported crime scene.

She opted to report the incident at Central police station in Nairobi.

“The accused by-passed Kikuyu police station and other nearer stations to go report the alleged kidnapping at Central…this was just an attempt to buy time so as to delay the process of investigations that she knew would follow.”

According to witness statements, Wanjiku changed her clothes several times from the time of the incident to that of reporting it to police.

 Witnesses told the court that she appeared calm and collected after the incident and that she did not seem to have been shaken by it.
“That is someone who was not affected by what had just happened…I find that the accused’s conduct after the shooting was the conduct of someone with a guilty mind,” a witness said.
Wanjiku’s defense team requested time to mitigate.

Additional Reporting by The Star