PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. (AP) — A Georgia man has been convicted in last year’s strangulation death of a Wisconsin woman.
Crawford County jurors deliberated seven hours Monday before finding 50-year-old Jimmy McDaniel of Hampton, Georgia, guilty of first-degree reckless homicide and strangulation and suffocation in the October 2016 death of 53-year-old Linda Kline of Prairie du Chien.
He faces a maximum 60 years in prison for the first count.
Prosecutors say McDaniel killed Kline, then tried to make it look like a suicide. But two different forensic pathologists—one who performed the autopsy on Kline’s body, and the other who didn’t personally examine her body, but was hired by the defense to review the case—testified, giving strongly opposing opinions about what happened.
The Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph Herald reported that McDaniel testified Kline hanged herself and he tried to revive her. He told jurors he couldn’t harm her and called her the love of his life. The defense also brought up Kline’s prior suicide attempts.
A forensic pathologist testified Kline’s injuries were more characteristic of strangulation than hanging.
