An Omaha woman convicted of killing her landlord has been sentenced.
Monique Lee will spend the rest of her life in prison for the October 2010 slaying of Karen Jenkins.
Judge James Gleason handed down the life sentence for the first-degree murder charge and 10 years for the weapon charge on Tuesday.
In August, Monique Lee was found guilty of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon in the killing.
Monique Lee’s brother, Gary Lee, also accused in the death, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against his sister. He was sentenced in September to 65-100 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Gary Lee held Jenkins’ legs down as his sister strangled Jenkins with a vacuum cleaner cord. The 48-year-old Jenkins had eviction papers served on Monique Lee, 28, two days earlier.
Prosecutors said Jenkins was lured to the apartment by then-19-year-old Gary Lee, who pretended that he wanted to rent the place.
Karen Jenkin’s sister, Cynthia Jenkins, said she will never forget the day her sister’s missing body was found.
“I guess I could say now I’m still trying to heal from that. That was traumatic. That was a trauma nobody should ever have to know,” said Cynthia.
Cynthia said she vowed not to rest until Karen’s killers were brought to justice.
What she did was, maybe use the word evil,” Cynthia said.
“It’s relieving, but it’s also it brings more questions. How do we heal?” said Chris Jenkins, Karen’s nephew.
Gary and Monique’s mother apologized for Karen’s death.
“I hate what happened to Miss Jenkins. She didn’t deserve that. But in the same token, they lost a sister, I lost two children,” Patricia Wilson said.
Patricia wishes Monique would have addressed the Jenkins family in court.
“I wanted her to speak out and apologize,” Patricia said.
The Jenkins family said it will be a long time before they can forgive Gary and Monica Lee.
This article originally appeared on ketv
