A Florida woman was sentenced January 9 to life in prison without parole for her role in the contract killing of Orion Township (Mich.) Public Library clerk Martha Gail Fulton. The 48-year-old woman was shot to death as she left the library October 4, 1999.
Donna Kay Trapani, 48, stood handcuffed with a belly chain as the judge called her a liar before sentencing her in a plot to murder her lover’s wife, according to the January 10 Detroit Free Press. “The jury didn’t believe your story, and neither do I,” said Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Richard Kuhn.
The jury found her guilty December 12 of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in Fulton’s shooting death. In an apparent four-person conspiracy, prosecutors said Trapani wanted to continue her two-year affair with Fulton’s husband, George, and after several failed attempts hired the gunman, Kevin Ouellette, a long-haul trucker from Florida. He was convicted of first-degree murder October 17 and sentenced to life in prison.
Posted January 15, 2001.