SANFORD, Fla.,None — A Central Florida woman is on trial, accused of drugging her husband, then setting their Winter Springs house on fire with him inside. This is the second time Kimberly Boone has been accused of trying to kill her husband.
Robert Boone was shot inside his Winter Springs home in March 2009, but Kimberly Boone was acquitted of that crime. But, three months prior to the shooting, Robert Boone narrowly escaped a house fire with his life.
Tuesday, prosecutors said Kimberly Boone set that fire in a failed attempt to cash in on her husband's death. A neighbor pulled Robert Boone from the fire.
“I can hear Rob inside of the house yelling for help,” neighbor Adam Rodriguez testified.
Rodriguez said he broke a front window to reach Robert Boone. He knew Kimberly wasn't home at the time because Rodriguez had waved goodbye to her minutes before he noticed smoke coming from the Boone's residence.
“He was full of soot. He was disoriented. He looked like he was bleeding from his eyes, and he was foaming from the mouth,’ Rodriguez said.
Prosecutors contended that Kimberly Boone was desperate for her husband's life insurance money.
The prosecution has a computer expert to back up this theory.The last witness on the stand removed a laptop believed to be Kimberly Boone's.
Eight days before the fire, someone with the username “Kim” searched homeowner's insurance questions and conducted a separate search for drug interactions eleven times.
Initially the fire was ruled accidental, and there was a sizable insurance payment. But information from Robert Boone reopened the case.
Prosecutors said they believe Boone was drugged by his now ex-wife, who was desperate for cash after embezzling $750,000 from her employer.
Prosecutors played a taped message in court attributed to Kimberly Boone, asking her employer not to call police if she returned the money.
The defense insisted that no one knows how the fire started. But, prosecutors said they know it was arson.
WFTV anticipates that that Robert Boone will take the stand for the prosecution.
If convicted, Kimberly Boone faces life in prison.