Katrina Ben Sentenced to Life Plus 20 Years in Shooting Death of Her Lover

A traveling nurse convicted in October of the 2012 murder of her lover was sentenced to life without parole plus 20 years.

Eric Somuah, 34, was found shot to death on a bed in his Silver Spring, Maryland, apartment in June 2012. He had been romantically involved with his neighbor, Katrina Renee Ben, who moved back home to Mississippi after Somuah's death.

After having sex with him, Ben shot Somuah in the head because she found out he had been dating other women, prosecutors said.

At his funeral, she sat in the second row, and she repeatedly denied having anything to do with Somuah's death.

A bullet casing found in Somuah's bedroom matched a partially dismantled gun found along the Beltway near Colesville. 

A Maryland detective traced the gun through its five previous owners to a pawnshop in Columbia, Mississippi, where it was purchased several years ago by Ben.

"It was like 25 bears coming off my back, and when he handed down that sentence, it just made our day," Somuah's brother Michael said. "Can't bring my brother back, but this will be a closure for our family."

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