NATION : Spouse of Hilton Exec Charged
The caterer husband of a hotel chain executive was charged today with bludgeoning his wife to death on her 44th birthday in their luxury apartment in lower Manhattan.
Allen Cole, 45, a free-lance banquet caterer, was charged in the slaying of his wife, Sharyn Cole, Hilton International Co.’s personnel director for the United States and Canada, detective Inspector Robert Frankel said.
Frankel said Cole, charged with second-degree murder, “maintains he didn’t do it.”
“It appears he used blunt instruments and struck her about the head repeatedly,” Frankel said. “There were injuries on his hand and face. We believe there was a domestic dispute that escalated into a violent confrontation. There is no indication that either was drunk.”
The inspector said the couple had been married about 17 years and had no history of estrangement.
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