US Army soldier Zarrius Hildabrand emotionless as hes convicted of killing wife, covering up her death
An ex-US Army soldier accused of fatally shooting his wife and covering up her death was stony-faced inside an Alaska courtroom as he was convicted of her murder. Zarrius Hildabrand, 23, faces up to 99 years in prison after an Anchorage jury found him guilty over the August 2023 death of Alaska National Guard combat medic Saria Barney Hildabrand, 21, last Thursday, according to Court TV. Hildabrand was acquitted of first-degree murder, but was convicted of second-degree murder and evidence tampering. The killer looked straight at the judge and showed no emotion as the results of the jury deliberations were read out in the courthouse.He’s set to be sentenced on October 23. Saria was shot dead in the early hours of Aug.
6, 2023, after she celebrated her 21st birthday – and during the two-week trial, Hildabrand’s lawyers tried to claim she may have taken her own life, or died accidentally, KTUU reported.Before being convicted, Hildabrand took the stand and said he wanted to put the truth on record.“Regardless of the outcome of the trial, I needed to tell the truth, I needed to get the weight off of three years of a lie,” he said. During his testimony, he couldn’t remember much of what followed because he was still drunk from the night before.He told jurors that he saw his wife dead in bed with a gunshot wound to the head after pulling back the covers.Prosecutors claimed Hildabrand shot his wife after she spotted explicit messages that suggested he was cheating – just a year into their marriage.Saria took screenshots of the sexual conversations, so she had them as proof.“The first thing I was afraid of was having no recollection of the night before, and just not knowing what happened,” Hildabrand said in court.“I was afraid I was gonna lose my family; I was afraid that I was gonna go to jail for something that I had no recollection of.“Just, there’s so many unknowns and I immediately assumed the worst.”Hildabrand, who admitted to cheatin...