Who is Andre McDonald? Air Force major who killed wife in front of 'special needs' child gets 20 years in prison
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SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: A Texas judge has sentenced a 43-year-old Air Force major to the maximum punishment after finding him guilty of brutally murdering his 29-year-old wife and dismembering her body. San Antonio District Court Judge Frank Castro sentenced Andre McDonald to 20 years in prison Monday, February 6, for brutally beating Andreen McDonald to death with a claw hammer and setting her body on fire in 2019.
Bexar County jurors stunned trial observers Friday, February 3, by convicting McDonald of the lesser offense of manslaughter. 399th District Court Judge Frank Castro had the legal option of sentencing Andre McDonald to a minimum of 2 years to a maximum of 20 years in prison for the manslaughter charge that jurors found him guilty. The defendant was originally charged with murder in connection with the 2019 death of his wife, Andreen McDonald, but jurors opted for the lesser charge.
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Who is Andre McDonald?
A 43-year-old Air Force major named Andre McDonald was arrested in 2019 in connection with the murder of his wife, Andreen McDonald. The 40-year-old McDonald was arrested following the disappearance of his wife, Andreen McDonald, 29. Andre was arrested after two friends of Andreen McDonald discovered blood stains, hair and a fresh burn pile in her home after she failed to show up for work over the weekend.
Police later searched the house and arrested Andre McDonald for allegedly deleting receipts to hide the fact that he had purchased an ax, a shovel, gloves, large trash bags, and two five-gallon gas cans. Andreen McDonald told her friends that her husband had murdered her if she ever went missing, authorities said, as reported by Heavy.
Judge Castro criticized McDonald at present before imposing the sentence, claiming that throughout the course of the trial, he did not appear to exhibit any feelings or regret. “You burned her body, beat it with a hammer, and desecrated her corpse. After that it almost seems like the emotion of a serial killer or something,” Castro said. “You didn’t seem to care about the dead mother of your child. You just didn’t seem bothered by that," as reported by Law&Crime.
What was Andre McDonald's confession?
The most shocking testimony at the trial came from McDonald himself, who vividly described Andreen's death and the gruesome aftermath. Judge Castro once again emphasized that McDonald showed "no emotion whatsoever" during this testimony and that the factual account "defied the imagination." As Law&Crime previously reported, McDonald claimed he killed Andreen in self-defense when a dispute over money and fidelity turned violent.
At an H&R Block event on February 28, 2019, McDonald claimed the controversy began when he discovered his wife had omitted his name from key documents establishing an assisted living facility. “It’s not every day you find out your wife’s ripping you off,” McDonald said.
He went on to say that he had recently discovered that Andreen McDonald had been in contact with an ex-boyfriend in the couple's home country of Jamaica, which made the bad feelings that followed that discovery even more bitter. As a result, he said, he went to a neighboring park to relax and listen to music until well after midnight. The defendant told a Bexar County court that on March 1, 2019, as he made his way to the master bedroom, he suddenly noticed his wife was alone in the living room. He told jurors that after noticing, he told his wife that he would file for divorce the next day and that, unlike a previous threat, he would actually carry out that threat.
In response, McDonald claimed that his wife used Jamaican patois to curse him, told him to perform oral sex on his mother, and called him gay. He claimed that many Jamaicans would consider these two expletives to be fighting language. The defendant claimed that after she explained what she meant, he tried to go into the master bedroom, but his wife followed him there. McDonald claimed that his comment about splitting the business during the divorce enraged his wife even more. He repeatedly stated that his attempts to defuse the situation had failed, as the name-calling continued in Patois and Andreen McDonald finally spat in his face.
Why did Andre kill his wife?
He claimed that because his wife was "a bit taller" than him at that moment, he instinctively grabbed her face when their heads touched, which presumably caused a "cut" on "her lower face" Then, McDonald said, his wife entered the master bathroom to examine her face and discovered the blood, whereupon she became "extremely angry" Thereupon, McDonald said, his wife ran to him, attacked him, and began beating him. After the argument, he said, he intentionally tripped his wife, causing her to fall to the ground. After that, the defendant told the jury, he "landed, like, a couple of kicks" and after the second one, he "heard some type of wheezing coming out of her"
He claimed that the entire brawl lasted no more than about a minute. McDonald claimed that shortly after the brawl ended, he heard "some footsteps running" and saw that the couple's special needs child had gotten out of bed. He then claimed he took her back to bed after going upstairs. When he returned, McDonald reportedly found his wife dead.
"Honestly, man, I became pretty frantic at that point," the defendant testified during direct questioning about the discovery that Andreen McDonald no longer had a pulse. "She's dead on the floor. We just had a fight. Obviously I'm going to get blamed for this and I've got a 7-year-old autistic kid upstairs. Who's going to take care of her?"
McDonald will be eligible for parole after serving an additional 8 years and was given credit for little over two years already served.