Kimani found guilty of murder

A Rhome woman was found guilty Wednesday of murdering her ex-husband at their home last September.

Marie Kimani

After nearly seven days of testimony, it took a Wise County jury about an hour to return a unanimous verdict in the death of Jonathan Tumbo.

Prosecutors and Kimani’s attorneys made their closing arguments to the jury Wednesday afternoon where they summed up their cases.

Defense Attorney Camila Francino said law enforcement had made too many mistakes in handling the case, and the state had not met their burden of proof, particularly showing that Kimani had intended to kill Tumbo.

“Look at the definition of intent,” Francino told jurors. “This was a tragic accident that became more tragic by the way law enforcement handled this investigation.”

She showed the jury a portion of the video they had watched earlier in the trial of Kimani answering the door for the first officer to arrive and bringing him to where Tumbo was laying in her closet. The video shows Kimani crying and wanting to stay by Tumbo’s side after paramedics said he was dead.

“The state wants you to believe she’s faking that,” she said.

Fellow defense attorney Bruce Isaacks also disputed prosecutors’ version of events that the shooting had taken place while Tumbo was laying on the floor and Kimani was on top of him when she shot him instead of the way Kimani had described the incident to investigators: that he came at her with the gun, and when she grabbed it, it accidentally fired into Tumbo’s chest.

“They (prosecutors) want you to have a leap of faith that because they said it happened his way, that’s the way it happened,” he said.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Berry laid out his theory of what happened during his closing argument. He said he believed Kimani convinced Tumbo, who was planning on moving out and possibly moving in with his girlfriend, to have sex with her one last time in the closet where they first made love in their home. When he was on his back with Kimani on top, she pulled out the gun and shot him at close range through the heart.

He argued that the story she told investigators didn’t match up with the evidence because she lied about what took place.

“Why does somebody lie? For one reason. She was trying to cover up the truth, that Marie Kendale Kimani is guilty of the murder of Jonathan Tumbo,” he said.

The punishment phase of the trial is set to begin Thursday morning in 271st District Court in Decatur.