By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4:48 p.m. Monday, August 9, 2010
Rodney Burton told a judge in Cherokee County on Monday how his tumultuous relationship with his wife ended with him on top of her, and her dead and naked after a domestic fight in January of 2009.
Judge N. Jackson Harris of Cherokee County Superior Court accepted Burton's guilty plea for manslaughter and aggravated assault. Judge Harris sentenced him to 20 years in prison and 10 years of probation after his release, and ordered Burton to pay $100,000 to the estate of Kimberly Leigh Burton.
Hours after the death of Kimberly Burton, Rodney Burton fled to the Cancun area of Mexico where he stayed for about two months before turning himself in.
The Burtons were both upper-middle-class workers in the eye-care industry. Kimberly was an optician, and both had children from previous marriages.
Burton told Judge Harris how his relationship with Kimberly had spiraled down and they were about to separate. He woke up January 18, 2009, with Kimberly screaming at him. He said she attacked him on a couch, he grabbed her by the neck and stood up, and they fell over a table with him on top. He stayed on top of her for an unknown amount of time before releasing her, he said.
Burton said she did not move and he tried to goad her into reacting to him by grabbing her clothing and pulling part of it off. When he realized she was dead, he "went crazy" punching her in the face, he said.
Joe Davis of Byron, Ga., Kimberly's father, said he and the family were satisfied with the plea.
"We can start over now and try to get our lives back together. Life goes on."
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