Ellsworth Man Found Guilty in Beating Death of His Wife

A judge today found Christopher Saenz guilty of depraved indifference murder for the beating death of his wife on Christmas Day, 2013. The couple's two children, ages 8 and 12 at the time, were sent to a neighbor's on the day their mother died.

According to the BDN, the judge handed down the verdict in court Monday morning. The State Medical Examiner determined that Hilary Saenz had died of blunt force trauma and police contended that her husband had beaten her to death in a jealous rage. However, Christopher Saenz said his wife hit her head during a seizure. He told police that his wife had dealt with a seizure disorder after a car accident in 2003.

Hilary was 29 when she died and was an employee of the Ellsworth Walmart and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she was a nurse's tech.