Estranged husband convicted in killing

Scott County jurors on Monday convicted a 47-year-old man of second-degree murder in the 2008 killing of his wife, Ruth Anne Maddox, after which he tried to cover his tracks by posing as her and pretended to hop a plane out of town.

Charles "Tony" Maddox took the stand last week and told jurors that although he did kill his wife at their Prior Lake townhouse and tried to cover it up, it was in self-defense.

Ruth Anne Maddox, 45, had filed for divorce. The day before her death, she had told Tony Maddox that she was going to show his mother sexually explicit e-mails that he had written, soliciting sex from men online, prosecutors said.

The jury found that Maddox killed his wife and packaged her body in the garage.

Police arrived with a search warrant and found her body just after 3 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2008, after being called by friends and family members when the Shakopee Valley News reporter didn't show up for work.

E-mails and texts laid a path for investigators as they developed Tony Maddox's motive and tore apart his alibi. They tracked his movements as he tried to mislead police -- including wearing a disguise to pose as his wife at the airport.

Maddox even used both his and his wife's cellphones to send texts as if they were communicating about her leaving, Assistant Scott County Attorney Neil Nelson said.

Police and attorneys said Internet and social networking sites being increasingly used in family law and criminal court cases.

'Not self-defense'

Tony Maddox testified last week that during a fight, Ruth Anne had a knife in her left hand, and that he had put his knee on that arm to hold down the hand while he choked her.

But, as Nelson told jurors on Monday, laboratory tests found Tony Maddox's DNA under the fingernails on his wife's left hand; she couldn't have been holding a knife and scratching him at the same time, prosecutors said. Nelson noted, too, at least 15 lies he said Tony Maddox had been caught in during the two-week trial.

Ruth Anne, who had been preparing to return to her hometown of Gary, Ind., had told co-workers and others that she feared her husband.

She became upset on Nov. 10, 2008, after learning that a divorce deal they had earlier worked out a few days earlier had fallen apart. Defense attorney Fred Bruno said that's when Ruth Anne tried to "blackmail" her husband. The weapon: e-mails that she had found online in 2007, in which she caught him trying to solicit both men and women for sex.

Tony Maddox testified that as they argued over custody of their two dogs and the e-mails, he went in his bedroom and locked the door but his wife picked the lock. He claimed she was standing in the doorway with a butcher knife in her hand, so he kicked the bedroom door, and it knocked her down a flight of stairs. Then he ripped off the damaged door and threw it down after her.

The door crushed her neck and cut off oxygen, forensic evidence showed. He charged down the stairs to assault her.

At least 23 bloodstains and spatters were found throughout the house, Nelson said. "The evidence tells us that this was not self-defense," he said.

Ruth Anne's family wept after the verdict. Her sister, Karen Whittaker, said the family was thankful for "closure and justice."

Joy Powell • 952-882-9017