93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
(AP) – A 60-year-old Missouri woman has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing a mentally disabled man in what prosecutors call a complicated plot to divert attention from another homicide.
Pamela Hupp of the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon was sentenced Monday in St. Charles County. She entered an Alford plea in June to first-degree murder in the 2016 death of 33-year-old Louis Gumpenberger. The plea isn’t an admission of the crime but concedes evidence exists for a conviction.
Hupp claimed she killed Gumpenberger when he tried to kidnap her. Prosecutors say she lied and killed Gumpenberger to distract from the re-investigation of her friend Betsy Faria’s 2011 death. Russ Faria was convicted of killing his wife, but the conviction was overturned and he was acquitted at retrial.
