A Hamilton County Criminal Court jury began deliberating this afternoon the fate of a man who has admitted to strangling his wife to death.
Kenneth Gann, 25, is hoping to convince the panel that he simply “snapped” on March 2, 2008, when he strangled estranged wife Robyn Burns Gann in their Hixson home.
If jurors agree and they convict him of a lesser degree of homicide, such as voluntary manslaughter, Mr. Gann would not have to spend the rest of his life in prison. He is charged with first-degree murder, which requires “contemplation and judgment” before the act, Tennessee criminal law states. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.
During closing arguments this morning the prosecution called Mr. Gann’s 34-minute confession to police a “self-serving statement” during which he tried to blame Mrs. Gann, 25 at the time of her death, for their marriage problems and, ultimately, her own death.
Mr. Gann said that when she came to their home that night, she threatened to have him put in jail, said he would never see their son again and told him she wished he was dead so she wouldn’t have to pay his rent. Mrs. Gann had moved out of the home two months earlier and was planning on divorcing her husband, according to testimony.