A Florida man was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder for killing his wife after she refused to appear on a reality TV show, WFTV reported.
David Tronnes was sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 murder of his wife, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes.
Cooper-Tronnes was found partially submerged in a bathtub, covered in blood, in the couple’s Orlando home.
According to prosecutors, Tronnes wanted to appear on “Zombie House Flipping,” a show that follows people who buy foreclosed and often abandoned “zombie” houses, repair and sell them. Santi Cooper-Tonnes had said she did not want to participate, prosecutors said.
The state attorney’s office issued a statement saying, “Cooper-Tronnes’ refusal to appear on the show upset Tronnes to the point that it led to her murder,” according to USA Today.
Cooper-Tonnes was found dead in the couple’s home on April 24, 2018. She died from blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation, the country medical examiner determined.
Tronnes had claimed his wife slipped and fell in their bathtub. Tronnes said he left home to walk his dogs, did yard work for nearly an hour, and then found his wife lifeless in the bathtub after 3 p.m. on that day.
Police charged him with her murder a few months later.
Tronnes pleaded not guilty and was found mentally competent to stand trial earlier this year despite a diagnosis of schizophrenia, WTVF reported.
When Cooper-Tronnes married Tronnes, she believed he had inherited between $4 and $6 million dollars from his father, People reported. Tronnes lied about the money, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, the couple began fighting in 2017 over their home renovation project, which prosecutors dubbed a “money pit,” Huffington Post reported.
The couple purchased a home that required extensive renovations, prosecutors said, and they had been working to repair it.
According to Court TV, notes taken from Cooper-Tronnes’ computer appeared to show her complaining about the project and how it was affecting their relationship and bank accounts.
“I ask him why he is so cheap — he keeps telling me how much money has been spent on this house and that he will almost have 1m into it — we are no further along into the renovation and our relationship is getting worse,” she wrote in her notes.
Sign Up
