Calif. man sentenced for fatally strangling wife in 2006 and telling authorities she ran away
12/21/2022 12:06 pm PST
VISALIA, Calif. (TCD) -- A 45-year-old man was recently sentenced to life in prison for fatally strangling his wife more than a decade ago.
According to a news release from the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office, Joseph Hughes was released from custody for a theft charge on Sept 25, 2006. The next month, on Oct. 6, he reportedly told the Visalia Police Department that his wife, Sonia Hughes, ran away, but he didn’t want to file an official report.
On Nov. 25, 2006, Visalia Police Department officers responded to a canal bank east of Akers Road and north of Hillsdale to a report of a possible dead body, police said in a news release. The victim’s body was reportedly found in a shallow grave.
An autopsy later revealed that the body was that of Sonia Hughes, Joseph Hughes’ wife. She had been strangled to death, police said.
Nearly a decade later, in February 2016, the District Attorney’s Office said a family member came forward and said they saw and heard Hughes beating his wife the night she supposedly ran away.
Hughes was formally arrested and charged with his wife’s fatal strangling in October 2017, police said. He was reportedly already in prison for robbery and felony vandalism.
Hughes was found guilty of second-degree murder on Nov. 18, and on Dec. 16, the District Attorney’s Office announced that he was sentenced to life in prison.
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