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Jury finds Tampa pharmacist guilty of wife's murder

 
Olufemi Ademoye, 56, faces 25 years to life in prison. His sentencing is set for 
March.
Olufemi Ademoye, 56, faces 25 years to life in prison. His sentencing is set for March.
Published Jan. 31, 2015

TAMPA — Jurors convicted a Tampa pharmacist on Friday of beating his wife to death with a baseball bat in 2010.

The conviction of Olufemi Ademoye, 56, followed weeks of testimony in which defense attorney Barry Cohen sought to convince jurors that the defendant's wife, Juliet Ademoye, had died from an accidental fall in the couple's Tampa home. But physical evidence — in particular, Juliet Ademoye's blood found on a baseball bat — suggested otherwise.

On Friday, after less than two hours of deliberation, jurors found Ademoye guilty of second-degree murder, a charge that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. At a minimum, he faces a sentence of 25 years. His sentencing is set for March.

The case revolved around an argument the Ademoyes had on the night of June 16, 2010. Prosecutors said that was the day Ademoye stumbled upon emails from his wife to another man, suggesting she was having an affair and was planning to leave her husband.

She sent the man a picture of her teenage son, who she had been raising with Ademoye. "This is a photo of your son Seun," she wrote.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that Ademoye was enraged by his wife's infidelity but they diverged on what followed. Cohen said his client spent the next several hours calling relatives to shame his wife. Afterward, he fell asleep in the couple's home. At some point that night, the wife fell in the bathroom, cut her head and died, Cohen said.

"This was an accident," he told the jury.

Prosecutors said Ademoye stabbed his wife repeatedly and beat her with her son's T-ball bat. When paramedics were summoned the next morning, they found him trying to resuscitate his wife as she lay on their bed, cool to the touch.