A High Court in Accra has sentenced a mother of two, Lydia Aboagye, to life imprisonment after finding her guilty of murdering her husband, Kweku Gyasi, following a domestic dispute at Omanjor in 2021.

The conviction followed a full trial in which a seven-member jury returned a 5–2 majority verdict of guilty, the minimum majority required under Section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), as amended by the Criminal and Other Offences (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1101).

The prosecution, led by Senior State Attorney Christabel Selma Anafure, called three witnesses, while the accused, represented by Rita Kunkuti Ali, testified in her own defence and called her mother as her sole witness.

After considering the evidence, Justice Marie-Louise Simmons convicted Lydia Aboagye of murder.

The trial judge summed up the case to the jury on July 30, a day before the legal vacation. After 39 minutes of deliberation, the jury's forelady announced the 5–2 majority guilty verdict.

When given the opportunity to address the court before sentencing, the convict simply stated:

"I have nothing to say."

Delivering the sentence, Justice Simmons said:

"With the jury having returned a majority verdict of 5–2 of guilty, the accused is hereby convicted under Section 46 of Act 29, as amended by the Criminal and Other Offences (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1101)."

The judge then sentenced her to life imprisonment and informed her that she had one month, from July 30, 2026, to appeal the conviction before the Court of Appeal.

Facts of the case

According to the prosecution, the complainant, a driver's mate, owns a house at Omanjor-Dwenewoho, near California School, where Lydia Aboagye and her husband rented a single room and lived with their two children.

On November 3, 2021, at about 4:30 a.m., a misunderstanding broke out between the couple.

During the altercation, Lydia Aboagye allegedly picked up a broken Coca-Cola bottle and stabbed her husband in the left side of his ribcage.

Prosecutors told the court that after realising he was bleeding profusely, she left the room and locked him inside before walking about 150 metres away to dispose of the broken bottle in a nearby bush.

About an hour later, at approximately 5:30 a.m., the landlord, who had just completed his early morning Fajr prayers, was alerted by his daughter, who reported hearing unusual noises from the couple's room while sweeping the compound.

The landlord forced the locked door open and found Kweku Gyasi lying in a pool of blood.

With the help of other tenants and neighbours, he rushed the victim to the Ga West Municipal Hospital (Amasaman Government Hospital), where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

His body was subsequently deposited at the Police Hospital mortuary for preservation and an autopsy.

The prosecution further stated that Lydia Aboagye later returned to the room and attempted to clean the bloodstains from the floor with a cloth.

Neighbours arrested her at the scene and handed her over to the police for investigations.