Westchester County jury found Carlos Perez-Olivo guilty of second-degree murder. He could get life in prison.

Westchester County jury found Carlos Perez-Olivo guilty of second-degree murder. He could get life in prison.Prosecutors said the troubled lawyer shot his schoolteacher wife, Peggy, in the back of the head as she dozed in their car during a drive to their home in Chappaqua on Nov. 18, 2006.The 59-year-old then gave himself a superficial gunshot wound, tossed the weapon into a lake, and called police claiming that a carjacker had attacked him and his wife.Perez-Olivo said the armed stranger forced him off the road, muscled his way into the car and fired three shots as the two men struggled. That elaborate claim of innocence failed to convince the jury, which also convicted Perez-Olivo of illegal weapons possession.Prosecutors claimed Perez-Olivo wanted to collect his wife's life insurance, which totaled nearly $900,000.Defense attorney Christopher McClure had argued during the trial that his client was telling the truth.The jury heard a recording of Perez-Olivo's emergency call, during which he told police, sobbing, that his wife had been shot by a Hispanic man and that he was driving her to the hospital."I'm driving! I'm driving! I'm going to get there," he said on the tape. "I can't stop. I can't stop!"
His children testified that their parents' 30-year marriage was happy and that their father was devastated by her death."He was screaming out my mom's name," said Alysia Perez-Hall, 18. "He was in complete and utter pain."But the prosecution found a witness who testified that he had seen Perez-Olivo handling a gun just like the pre-World War II Walther PPK that investigators fished from Echo Lake in New Castle. That gun was established as the weapon that killed Peggy Perez-Olivo.Prosecutors also noted that Perez-Olivo had a 10-year affair during his marriage. And they said Perez-Olivo, having been disbarred three months before the shooting for misconduct in his representation of criminal clients, was down to $300 in his bank accounts.
At the time of the killing, former President Clinton and Sen. Rodham Clinton said they were "saddened" to hear of the death of their neighbor.