Wife gets decade for "manslaughter" of husband

A woman who helped her "lover" to kill her husband was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment Wednesday, December 1, in a St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana courtroom. Kendra Talley, a 30 year old mother of an eight year old son, was sentenced to the decade long term after pleading guilty to 2nd degree manslaughter and crystal meth posession last month. Judge Peter Garcia presided over her trial. The "lover," Tommy D. Rowell Sr., is serving a mandatory life without parole sentence for 2nd degree murder.

The deadly night of Dec. 11, 2004, started when Kendra Talley left her home wearing a sweater, a T-shirt and jeans. Her husband stayed home to recover from surgery to remove his wisdom teeth.

Kendra Talley later met up with Rowell and slipped into a blouse, black miniskirt and knee-high boots, and they drove together to the French Quarter to feast on crystal meth, marijuana and potent "hand grenade" drinks, according to witness testimony from Rowell's trial.

They spent most of the evening and morning with friends at a Bourbon Street bar. There, Rowell and Talley argued after Talley gave Carnival beads to another man and flashed him by lifting her leg onto a railing, friends at the bar testified.

Finally, as the sun rose during their journey back across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Kendra Talley told Rowell that her husband had raped her.

Rowell took Kendra Talley to her home at 108 Gratitude Drive. He honked his horn. Thomas Talley, who had been taking pain medication, stepped outside, wearing only his pajamas. Rowell drew a gun and shot the husband six times, twice point-blank to the head.

Rowell met Kendra when she was 15 and he was 27, meeting through her parents.

David Talley, the victim's brother said through his victim impact statement that the killing robbed the victim of family bonding time, including watching his son grow up. "I know my brother would like to take his son fishing, but he can't - because his life was taken by a selfish act....Zachary's birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter," he said. "The saddest thing in my life was seeing my little brother in his casket . . . all because of bad choices that were made."

Defense attorney Kevin McNary asked Judge Garcia to take into account the single parenting of his client and Zachary's high grades in school. He said his client was not the same person she was "when she was 24," completing a drug rehabilitation program.

Judge Garcia, focusing on the killing, told Talley, "You had a high degree of responsibility," sentencing her to the maximum possible in the plea deal.