A Kenyan court has sentenced a University lecturer to death for murdering her husband in a row over family property. Sheila Wanjiku Kibinge, who is a lecturer in the US and also a Ph.D. student, was handed the sentence on Tuesday by High Court Judge Jessie Lessit, Kenya’s Daily Nation reports.

“The prosecution, led by State Prosecutor Evelyn Onunga, has proved beyond reasonable doubt that you purposed to kill your husband although you allege you were both kidnapped the night your husband was executed,” Justice Lessit said.

The judge dismissed her defence that her husband was killed by kidnappers. The judge said that she murdered her husband by shooting him in the head, neck and chest in Gitaru village, Kikuyu, Kiambu County.

“The number of shots fired at the deceased, Leonard Kibinge Kiruri on the night of April 14, 2014, establishes pre-meditated malice aforethought,” Justice Lessit stated.

Sheila, however pleaded for leniency, but the judge said, “there is only one verdict provided for in the law and that is “to suffer death in the manner prescribed by the law.”