A DeKalb County jury convicted Dennis Allaben of murdering his wife in a bizarre case that involved the 47-year-old man swaddling her body in a packing blanket and duct tape and tossing her into the bed of his pickup truck.
Immediately after the verdict Thursday, Judge Linda Hunter sentenced Allaben to life in prison with the possibility of parole for malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of life without parole.
Dennis Allaben admitted killing Maureen Allaben on Jan. 3, 2010, but he said it was an accident. He said he lost control of his emotions because she was trying to poison him and was monitoring his movements on GPS and computer, claims that were never proved.
“This was a senseless and malicious murder of a beloved mother, daughter and sister,” District Attorney Robert James said.
Maureen Allaben was an effervescent set designer for “The Mo’Nique Show on BET” and a well-known food stylist who prepared displays in advertising photographs. She was gaining more financial independence and that caused trouble in her marriage, the prosecutor said. That is what contributed to the argument that led to her death, prosecutor Pat Jackson argued during the trial.
The medical examiner testified that Maureen Allaben was strangled by someone who stood behind her and put her in a choke hold.
The trial moved swiftly.
A jury was selected Monday and testimony began Tuesday and was over Wednesday morning. The jury of 10 men and two women began deliberating Thursday morning and a decision was made by 4 p.m.
According to testimony, Dennis Allaben put his wife’s body in the bed of his truck and drove to Virginia to leave his son, 7, and daughter, 8, with his brother and Jill Allaben, his brother’s wife. Dennis Allaben told his sister-in-law that he had killed his wife, Jill Allaben testified.
He also told his children he had killed their mother, Jill Allaben said.
Two days after the murder, Dennis Allaben returned to Georgia and drove directly to a friend's home in Clayton County. He told a Clayton police officer who lived two doors from the friend that he had killed his wife and she was in his truck. By then, Maureen Allaben’s body was frozen, having been outside in the cold for two days.
“He thought Maureen Allaben’s body couldn’t speak from the grave,” Jackson said. “It spoke volumes.”
