PARKERSBURG- A Parkersburg man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison after entering a plea in the 2007 death of his wife, after his original first-degree murder conviction was overturned in 2011 by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
On Friday before Wood County Circuit Court Judge Robert Waters, 59-year-old David Wayne Kaufman entered an Alford plea to a charge of second-degree murder, a lesser included charge of the original first-degree murder charge, with the negotiated sentence of 20 years in prison.
In an Alford plea, the criminal defendant does not admit the act but admits that the prosecution could likely prove the charge.
Martha Kaufman's body was found Dec. 17, 2007, in a closet in their Winding Road home. Prosecutors alleged David Kaufman shot his wife to collect insurance proceeds and tried to make her death look like a suicide. The defense said she suffered from anxiety and depression and killed herself after a previous suicide attempt.
Kaufman was convicted in February 2009 in the murder of his wife, but the verdict in Wood County Circuit Court and the sentence of life in prison without parole were overturned by the state Supreme Court in June 2011. The justices ordered a new trial based on the local court's ruling on evidence derived from Martha Kaufman's diary, which was read to the jury during the first trial.
With the new trial scheduled to begin Monday, Wood County Prosecutor Jason Wharton said his office and defense attorney George Cosenza had been conducting plea negotiations this week. Cosenza offered the Alford plea, but Wharton initially rejected it.
On Thursday, Wharton said he met with the adult children of David and Martha Kaufman and they indicated they would support the plea agreement as a way to find finality on the case, and to avoid having to testify against their father about their mother as they did in the first trial.
The Kaufman family has been deeply impacted by the case, Wharton said, but it was not the only factor in his decision. Despite the suppression of some evidence from the first trial, Wharton said the prosecution still felt it had sufficient evidence to get a conviction.
However, the family's support for the plea agreement, along with support from the original investigators, made the agreement seem in the best interests of everyone involved, Wharton said.
During Friday's hearing, Waters polled the investigating officer and the Kaufmans' son and daughter about the plea and all indicated their agreement to it.
Under questioning from Waters, David Kaufman still maintained he did not shoot his wife with a firearm, but said he believed the prosecution had sufficient evidence to convict him on first-degree murder so he was willing to enter the Alford plea to avoid another possible life sentence should he be convicted again.
At the end of Friday's hearing, Waters approved the plea agreement and adjudged Kaufman guilty of second-degree murder. He immediately imposed the 20-year sentence, with credit for time served in the North Central Regional Jail since Kaufman's arrest and conviction. Waters also assessed court costs against Kaufman and said restitution might be assessed at a later date.
Waters remanded Kaufman to the regional jail until he can be transferred to the West Virginia Division of Corrections to serve out his sentence in prison. He will be eligible for parole after 10 years with good behavior.
