Man guilty of woman's murder in Chesapeake

CHESAPEAKE

Karen Kittell's death was no accident, and her killer, Eric Spencer Baugher, wasn't insane, a Circuit Court jury concluded Tuesday.

It took almost five hours over two days to find Baugher guilty of first-degree murder and a firearm charge, and an additional 47 minutes to recommend the maximum life sentence and $100,000 fine.

Judge John Brown scheduled sentencing for May 16.

"I don't have my mom to call," wept Alicia Morris, Kittell's 27-year-old daughter, describing for the jury her loss.

"I don't have that security, that love.... I won't have her when I get married. I won't have her when I have children. I'd do anything to hear her laugh. Or to yell at me."

The convictions ended the seven-day trial of Baugher, 36, of Norfolk. The jury rejected his claims that the Jan. 24 shooting death of Kittell, 46, in her Greenbrier home was an accident, either during consensual sex role-playing or his attempt to stop her from committing suicide - two explanations he gave - or that he was insane at the time because of longtime substance abuse.

Kittell's sisters and daughter cried at the verdict, as did Baugher's sister. Baugher had no visible reaction, staring ahead as he had done for most of the trial.

A friend and family members asked the jury for mercy, calling Baugher a good man, if troubled by alcohol and other problems.

"It's not in his character" to commit such violence, said Baugher's sister, Malinda Isham-Foote.

"He's good people" who allowed her children to color in his tattoos with markers, said a longtime friend, Chris McMillian.

But Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Heather Shelton noted Baugher's past convictions for domestic assault and burglary and the current charges and asked for a life sentence.

"This man - this executioner - took a vivacious, bubbly, loved woman and killed her," Shelton said. "He took a life, and destroyed their lives," indicating her family.

Baugher's attorney, Deputy Public Defender A. Robinson Winn, pleaded for compassion. "There's still hope for him," he said. "Something went terribly wrong that day."

Kittell's younger sister, Kim Cheslock, talked about daily crying jags, fear, the difficulties her sister's loss has created in her own family, and feelings of hatred.

"My mother always taught me never to hate someone," she told the jury. "This has made me hate someone."

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-5221, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com