The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday, for the second time, reversed the murder conviction against a DeKalb County man who killed his wife and then drove to Virginia and back with her body in the trunk of his pickup truck.
The unanimous decision means Dennis Allaben will get a third murder trial for the Jan. 3, 2010, killing of his 43-year-old wife, Maureen. At the time of her death, Maureen was the recently promoted set decorator of “The Mo’Nique Show” on BET. She was also a highly regarded food stylist, calling herself the “Mistress of Deception” for the way she prepared food for advertising photos.
Maureen died after her husband put her in a choke hold. Dennis Allaben has said he merely wanted to put his wife to sleep, tie her up and then confront her about his beliefs — which have not been substantiated — that she was trying to poison him and was tracking his movements through GPS and computer monitoring, according to court records.
After the killing, Allaben wrapped his wife's body in quilted padding and weighted it down in the back of his truck. He then drove the couple's 7- and 8-year-old children more than 500 miles to Chesterfield, Va., and dropped them off at his sister's so they wouldn't be taken into state custody. He then drove back to Georgia, with his wife's corpse still in tow, and surrendered to authorities.
Before he left Virginia, Allaben told his sister that his wife had videotaped him performing sex acts and given the video to about 30 men, court records said. He also told his sister that, to put his wife to sleep so he could tie her up, he put a cloth soaked with ether over her mouth. But he said he forced the cloth too far down her throat, causing her to choke to death, court records said.
In his first trial in 2011, Allaben was convicted of murder and other offenses and sentenced to life in prison. But in 2013, the state Supreme Court granted Allaben a new trial on grounds his jury rendered "mutually exclusive" verdicts — one that said he intentionally killed his wife and another that indicated he did not intend to kill or injure her.
Allaben was tried and convicted of murder again in 2014. But on Monday, the state high court threw out that conviction on grounds his trial judge prohibited testimony from a defense witness who would have supported Allaben's claim that he didn't mean to kill his wife.
About the Author
