CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio jury has convicted a doctor of the cyanide poisoning death of his wife.
Forty-one-year-old Dr. Yazeed Essa (EE’-suh) was convicted of murdering his 38-year-old wife Rosemarie, who collapsed in her car about five miles from the couple’s home and died Feb. 24, 2005.
Prosecutors say Essa was trying to escape a loveless marriage and wanted to live with his mistress. The defense argued the mistress wanted to marry the doctor and had a motive to kill his wife.
Essa was an emergency room doctor in Akron but fled to Lebanon after his wife’s death. He gave up an extradition fight and was returned from Cyprus to Ohio last year.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
