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PASCAGOULA — Circuit Court Judge Robert Krebs on Friday sentenced Frank D. Patton to life in prison for the 2008 murder of his 30-year-old wife, Remika Patton.
A Jackson County jury who heard the weeklong trial deliberated about two hours Friday afternoon before finding Patton guilty of murder by deliberate design.
The judge imposed the sentence immediately after the verdict was handed down. The judge also ordered a mental evaluation be conducted once Patton is in custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Psychiatrists who testified at trial said Patton suffers from a major depressive psychotic illness that sometimes causes him to hear voices.
Patton is 31.
The couple had been married since 2004.
Friends and family who testified in court said the couple had a strained relationship and no longer shared the same bedroom or rides to work. Both were employed at a shipyard in Pascagoula.
Friends and co-workers described Patton as aloof and anti-social.
Patton at first told police an intruder came in the house and shot both him and his wife. A Moss Point police detective testified that there were no signs of forced entry into the home and the security alarm was set but didn’t go off until after Frank Patton opened the door for police.
A forensic pathologist testified that the wife’s gunshot wound to the head was not self-inflicted.
Remika Patton’s mother told the court her daughter had talked about the need to end her marriage.
The judge allowed the jury to consider whether Patton was guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
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