Orane Ferguson met his wife at his brother's funeral. At only their second meeting, she suggested they marry. He was Jamaican and, with his visa expiring, would have to return to his homeland.
It was never a happy union, and less than three years after they married, authorities say Ferguson killed his wife, stabbing her more than 50 times.
The 31-year-old is on trial this week, charged with first-degree murder in the July 20, 2008, death of Lenora Michelle Ferguson, 35. His attorneys don't dispute he stabbed her, but they say he was a man in a frenzy who had no conscious intent to kill his wife.
She was found dead on the floor of a guest bathroom in their home in the Ballantrae subdivision of Land O'Lakes. Ferguson told deputies who arrived, guns drawn, "Don't worry about her, she's dead."
The couple had argued, as they often did, and the struggle turned violent. Michelle Ferguson's 15-year-old son, Gabriel Neal, tried to intervene and save his mother. He suffered a stab wound to the chest and has recovered.
Ferguson faces life in prison if convicted as charged.
Source: Tampabay.com