Woman stabs husband to death during foreplay: 'He wasn't supposed to get hurt'

Jennifer Via's attorney claimed that she was a battered woman, but investigators said she had a history of domestic violence

(West Virginia Regional Jail)

A woman has been jailed after fatally stabbing her husband during foreplay.

Jennifer Lynn Via, 49, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Monday for stabbing her husband, Thomas Via, to death in November of 2017.

The pair was using a 14-inch dagger as part of their sexual foreplay at home when Via stabbed her husband in the back, piercing his heart and killing him.

The knife was plunged seven inches deep into the man.

Via’s attorney claimed the pair had begun to experiment with violent foreplay after being inspired by “Kung Fu movies”, as reported by the Huntington Herald-Dispatch.

“As strange as this is, they watched these Kung Fu movies and it led to, what I would tell a jury, foreplay, which was both of them getting pretty violent with each other while playing with weapons,” said attorney Kerry Nessel. “That’s what led to this.”

Her lawyer also claimed the situation may have been influenced by alcohol, and tried to paint Via as a battered woman in her marriage. However, neighbours and those familiar with the couple dispelled that narrative and claimed that Via was the aggressor in the relationship.

The couple was allegedly re-enacting a scene from a ninja-superhero movie, and the stabbing occurred as Thomas Via stood up from a bent-over position while dumping water into a toilet.

“My husband and I liked to fight and have sex and then make up, if that’s the right way to say that,” said Via.

“He wasn’t supposed to get hurt, but it did happen.”

Via was originally charged with first degree murder as detectives believed her account of what happened did not line up with the evidence.

At one point she claimed her husband had slipped on water and fell onto an old knife.

Her husband’s life insurance policy was also increased to $80,000 a few weeks before the incident. Via had attempted to cash in on the insurance policy days after his death.

Defence attorney Abe Saad pushed for a voluntary manslaughter conviction, claiming that Via intended to use the knife but not to kill her husband.

Prosecutor Sean Hammers disagreed, saying: “We would be arguing, just on the facts itself and the background, that it was no accident.”

Via’s sentence may potentially get reduced to as little as three years at a hearing in August, after an investigation into her past and criminal history is completed.