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Jury to decide if St. Louis County man's killing of pregnant wife was murder or 'sudden passion'
4/26/22
CLAYTON — There is no dispute that Beau Rothwell killed his pregnant wife in November 2019, tried to clean up the crime scene and led police to her body in Lincoln County.
But a St. Louis County jury will decide if Jennifer Rothwell’s death was premeditated murder or a crime of sudden passion. Testimony began Tuesday in Beau Rothwell’s trial on charges of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and abandoning a corpse.
The 28-year-old woman was six weeks pregnant when her husband reported her missing Nov. 12, 2019. He was charged in her death two days later and ultimately told police they could find her naked body partly covered in branches and brush in a wooded area off U.S. 61 near Troy, Missouri.
Assistant Prosecutor Tom Smith told jurors that Beau Rothwell, 31, smashed his wife’s skull in the basement of the couple’s home near Creve Coeur “with such violent, homicidal force” that she bled out on their basement carpet. He said Jennifer Rothwell “was a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She had just found she was going to be a mother.”
[..]
“Beau was excited to be a dad,” Barberio said. “When Beau got the news that Jennifer was pregnant, he told his mistress that he was going to have to break up with her. This was stressful to Beau. He felt guilty and ashamed and it weighed on him.”
On the night of Nov. 11, Beau Rothwell decided to come clean about his affair, Barberio said. His wife became upset and demanded to know the identity of his mistress but he refused to say.
“Things escalated quickly,” Barberio said. “In the heat of sudden passion, he killed her.”
[..]
Police have said they found multiple bottles of bleach inside the Rothwells’ home, along with a wet, blood-stained carpet and padding. Police also said they used DNA samples from Jennifer Rothwell’s parents to confirm that blood found in the Rothwells’ house was their daughter’s. According to search warrants, Jennifer Rothwell had searched the internet on her cellphone about “what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant.”
[..]
Prosecutors are planning to show jurors text and Facebook messages Beau Rothwell had exchanged with his mistress.
Beau Rothwell is expected to testify later this week; the trial is expected to wrap up by Friday.
4/26/22
CLAYTON — There is no dispute that Beau Rothwell killed his pregnant wife in November 2019, tried to clean up the crime scene and led police to her body in Lincoln County.
But a St. Louis County jury will decide if Jennifer Rothwell’s death was premeditated murder or a crime of sudden passion. Testimony began Tuesday in Beau Rothwell’s trial on charges of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and abandoning a corpse.
The 28-year-old woman was six weeks pregnant when her husband reported her missing Nov. 12, 2019. He was charged in her death two days later and ultimately told police they could find her naked body partly covered in branches and brush in a wooded area off U.S. 61 near Troy, Missouri.
Assistant Prosecutor Tom Smith told jurors that Beau Rothwell, 31, smashed his wife’s skull in the basement of the couple’s home near Creve Coeur “with such violent, homicidal force” that she bled out on their basement carpet. He said Jennifer Rothwell “was a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She had just found she was going to be a mother.”
[..]
“Beau was excited to be a dad,” Barberio said. “When Beau got the news that Jennifer was pregnant, he told his mistress that he was going to have to break up with her. This was stressful to Beau. He felt guilty and ashamed and it weighed on him.”
On the night of Nov. 11, Beau Rothwell decided to come clean about his affair, Barberio said. His wife became upset and demanded to know the identity of his mistress but he refused to say.
“Things escalated quickly,” Barberio said. “In the heat of sudden passion, he killed her.”
[..]
Police have said they found multiple bottles of bleach inside the Rothwells’ home, along with a wet, blood-stained carpet and padding. Police also said they used DNA samples from Jennifer Rothwell’s parents to confirm that blood found in the Rothwells’ house was their daughter’s. According to search warrants, Jennifer Rothwell had searched the internet on her cellphone about “what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant.”
[..]
Prosecutors are planning to show jurors text and Facebook messages Beau Rothwell had exchanged with his mistress.
Beau Rothwell is expected to testify later this week; the trial is expected to wrap up by Friday.