WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
Transgender wife gets 4 years for husband's death
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-21 11:14 Chris Mason told police that she didn't intentionally kill her husband and that they were in the swimming pool at their apartment complex so he could exercise. A security videotape shows Chris Mason pulling her husband by his arms and legs on June 2, tossing and dunking him. Sometimes he clings to the side of the pool and his wife pulls him away. She appears to block his path as he tries to get out of the water, 43 times, by the police chief's count.
At other times James Mason gets out but goes back in. He doesn't swim but walks slowly in the 3-foot-deep end of the pool. Chris Mason's attorney, public defender Bob Umholtz, declined to comment. James Mason, who had coronary artery disease, suffered a heart attack. An autopsy shows that his major arteries had potentially fatal blockages of about 75 percent, Geauga County Coroner Kevin Chartrand said. It was fine for James Mason to exercise, but the condition of his heart made strenuous activity a risk, Chartrand said. Shortly before Mason collapsed in the pool, Vallandingham had told Chris Mason she was moving out.
Troubles continued after James Mason's death. His widow was involved in a bar fight in December and was jailed after her personal bond was revoked, said Prosecutor David Joyce. She was banned from another bar she frequently visited. "She was getting obnoxious, and the owner told her she had to stay out of here," said Tracy Hall, a bartender at Middlefield Tavern. "She liked to flirt with all the guys who come in here." She wasn't working at the time of her husband's death. James Mason, a retired janitor who had served in the Army and Air Force, had Veterans Affairs benefits, Social Security and possibly other retirement assets, according to the police investigation. Police Chief Stehlik had expected a murder charge, convinced that Chris Mason knew her husband had a weak heart and that she would get VA benefits and Social Security as his widow. He said she did receive benefits of more than $860 a month from the VA and at least one retirement account. But because there is no audio on the security video, the grand jury could not know what the couple said to each other, Joyce said. They do not appear to be arguing. He does not appear to be fighting her off. She was indicted on a charge of reckless homicide, a third-degree felony. Vondrasek said she and Chris Mason both wept as James Mason died. But James Mason's half-sister, Cinda Meyer, said Chris Mason appeared to show little grief. "She had him cremated, and she called and told me to come and pick up the ashes and do something with them," said Meyer, of Seville in northeast Ohio. "She was pretending to be a grieving widow." Meyer said she arranged her brother's funeral. Chris Mason did not attend.
|
