Man Pleads Guilty in Wife’s Drowning, Gets 30-Year Term
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ST. LOUIS — A wealthy New Orleans real estate executive has pleaded guilty in the 1986 drowning death of his wife and began serving the balance of a 30-year prison sentence Thursday to avoid a third trial.
Edward Post, who pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder, was convicted in two earlier jury trials for the murder of his wife, Julie. But both verdicts were overturned, the first because a court deputy allegedly had sex with a juror and the second because hearsay evidence was introduced.
Prosecutors said Post purchased the bulk of a $700,000 life insurance policy on his wife shortly before drowning her in a hotel bathtub during a business trip to St. Louis.
He has spent the past 6 1/2 years in jail without bond and must serve another 3 1/2 years before becoming eligible for parole.
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