Berserk sports fan to die for wife's slaying

He attacked her with hammer when she interrupted his TV viewing

Video: Crime & courts

Slaying of couple with 16 kids stuns town
July 11: Bert and Melanie Billings were well-liked business owners and the proud parents of 16 children, 12 of them adopted, many with developmental disabilities. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports.

Families swarm desecrated Ill. cemetery

Thousands attend McNair’s funeral

3 sought in slaying of couple with 16 kids

Crossing The Line, Part 12

On the run

15 Most Wanted

The U.S. Marshals want your help finding their "15 Most Wanted" fugitives, a notorious list of suspects fleeing everything from murder and robbery to child sex charges. To date, about 200 of the fugitives profiled on the list have been found. Tips leading to an arrest are rewarded up to $25,000. Click here to see the fugitives.

Breaking news alerts (about 1 per day)
Click here to sign up or text NEWS to MSNBC (67622).

Find more alerts at alerts.msnbc.com

Most popular

• Most viewed

• Top rated

• Most e-mailed

French travelers ranked as world’s worst

Ten cars that brought down Detroit

Texting Teen Falls Down Manhole

Toddler gives police a turn at hide-and-seek

Top 10 national park lodges

Most viewed on msnbc.com

updated 2:11 p.m. ET Aug. 4, 2005

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A man who got angry with his wife because she wanted to cuddle after sex when he wanted to watch sports on television was sentenced to death for killing her with a claw hammer.

Christopher Offord, 30, was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Dedee Costello, who said the brutality of the crime outweighed any mental problems Offord may have had.

“The defendant struck his wife approximately 70 individual blows after spending a happy interlude with her,” the judge said. “Her desire to cuddle after sex does not justify the extremely violent, brutal response of the defendant.”

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Offord pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 slaying of Dana Noser, 40, at his apartment.

He confessed to a bartender at a sports bar before his arrest. He told investigators that his wife had been nagging him to come back to bed.

Offord did not speak in court but said in a jailhouse interview in June: “I figured I killed her so I deserve to die.”