Bjorn Burke, Staff Reporter

A Jamaican national convicted in Georgia, United States, for the 2009 murder of her husband, was sentenced to life imprisonment last Thursday, THE STAR has learnt.

Fifty-three-year-old Pamela Ballin was convicted by a DeKalb County jury of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.

According to www.cbs46.com, at the time of the incident in December 2009, the accused reportedly told investigators that men had broken into their home, killing her husband Derrick.

Investigators soon became suspicious of the accused when it was revealed that her husband had taken out a US$750,000 life insurance policy against her, and had also become aware of his wife's infidelity, with a divorce looming. She was subsequently arrested and charged.

Prosecutors argued that the accused had beaten her husband to death in their home shortly after Christmas.

Ballin's sentence comes at the end of a jaw-dropping decision by the presiding judge in June, when he allowed her to remain free on bail, while he took time to decide whether to override a jury verdict finding her guilty.