A 62-year-old man pleaded guilty this week to killing his wife of more than 20 years in a violent attack at their Kennesaw home and dousing her body with gasoline.
Cobb County prosecutors said the couple had no history of domestic violence before Brenda Poole Chandler, 62, was found dead on Dec. 12, 2016, stabbed repeatedly in the chest and cut across her neck.
Darryl Chandler admitted to striking his wife in the head with a blunt object before mutilating her body, according to the Cobb County District Attorney’s office.
He was arrested after neighbors smelled a strong odor of gasoline near their Lake Mist Drive duplex. They first called a gas company, but workers were suspicious when Chandler refused them entry to the home to investigate the smell, and police were alerted.
When officers detained him, they found two lighters in his pocket, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Prosecutors said Chandler filled the home with gas in an attempt to burn it down with Brenda Chandler’s body still inside.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to all charges, including malice murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and criminal attempt to commit arson. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Brenda’s death shocked her children, who knew their parents to be loving and supportive of each other. In the months before she died, Darryl Chandler had lost his job and disappeared for a period of two weeks, prosecutors said.
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“She had done so much for him,” her son, Torre Poole, told Channel 2 Action News at the time of her death. “He would have done anything to protect her.”
Brenda Chandler’s surviving children testified during the proceedings that she “lived her life in love every day,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Brendan Murphy said in a statement. Murphy prosecuted the case.
“Brenda did not deserve to have her life come to such a gruesome end at the hands of a man to whom she gave nothing but love and support,” he said. “This is a grave reminder that domestic violence can be deadly, even the very first time it happens. We will continue to hold violent perpetrators accountable when they rain down such terror in the home.”
Under his sentence, Assisting Superior Court Judge Joyette Holmes ordered that Chandler must serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. He will receive credit for the time served in custody since his 2016 arrest, as required by law.
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He was represented in court by Marietta attorney Michael Saul.
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