Adeyinka Adebamiro's wife Temitope stabbed him to death in their Red Lion home back in 2015 for abusing and cheating on her with several women including her sister and their nanny's daughter. Temitope has been sentenced to only four years in prison, a lenient sentence for someone who admitted to murder and could have faced up to 50 years, because two very different images of Adebamiro emerged at his wife Temitope's sentencing in a Delaware courtroom Thursday. The Adebamiro's family said he was a respected pharmacist trying to follow his Nigerian family's values by saving a deeply-troubled marriage for the couple's two children.
The evidence, however, pointed to a darker truth.Temitope's attorney provided Superior Court Judge Andrea L. Rocanelli with evidence of scars on Temitope's body from his abuse and numerous videos showing that Adebamiro was not only unfaithful, but was having sex with prostitutes.
The 37-year-old man was also being investigated at the time of his death by federal authorities for illegally selling $20,000 worth of prescription pills each week through his six pharmacies in the Philadelphia area, her attorney Kathryn van Amerongen said.
Temitope only learned of this when she received in prison a federal forfeiture notice saying the government wanted to seize nearly $300,000 from her deceased husband.
In the end, Rocanelli said little – but sent a clear message. She sentenced the 36-year-old mother to only four years in prison, a lenient sentence for a defendant who admitted to murder and could have faced up to 50 years.
Temitope rocked back and forth, crying quietly throughout the hearing. van Amerongen read a letter on her behalf in which she expressed remorse and apologized to Adebamiro's family for her "unplanned, yet inexcusable actions." She said the most difficult thing will be, someday, to explain to her children, ages 5 and 8, what happened to their father. By all accounts, the couple's marriage was irreparable long before Temitope stabbed her husband in their stately home on Healy Court in April 2015. Deputy Attorney General Colleen Norris said Adebamiro wanted to end the marriage, but was stuck between two cultures and two generations. One side was telling him to get a divorce. The other pushed him to stick it out.
The ensuing drama was dizzying. There were trips back and forth to Nigeria. Children left with a nanny. And a post-nuptial agreement aimed at stopping the chaos. None of this was discovered by authorities until Adebamiro's death led them into the couple's world. New Castle County police learned the two had been married for more than 10 years. Temitope told investigators her husband was physically abusive to her and had been cheating on her with various women, including her own sister and the nanny's daughter, court documents said. On the night of the killing, Temitope told investigators her husband had sent her to Nigeria for several months. After returning in December, she had to stay in a hotel near the Philadelphia airport for four days because her husband refused to let her into their home.
He then paid for her to fly back to Nigeria for a few more months to live with a pastor, according to documents and statements in court. Temitope was only allowed to return to Delaware and see her children after she signed a post-nuptial agreement that turned over all control of the couple's property and assets to Adebamiro. The agreement also established rules for her return, including a ban on crying and allowing the nanny to control the upbringing of the couple's children, van Amerongen said.
"These were rules that are well beyond what anybody would call a normal post-nuptial agreement," she said. "It was entirely one-sided."
The written agreement was found by investigators on one of Adebamiro's computers in a locked office in their home. Also found on the computer was surveillance footage that captured images of Adebamiro having sex with other women and conducting a drug deal, van Amerongen said.
This data dump provided a significant break in the case, she said. While it did not show Adebamiro physically abusing his wife, it did show him using on other women sex toys that Temitope had claimed were used to assault and scar her, van Amerongen said.
"The big picture starts to look like he was segxwally aggressive and violent toward her," she said.
van Amerongen gave the judge this information, as well as hospital and police reports that lent credibility to Temitope's statements about the abuse, some of which occurred while she was pregnant.
While the judge weighed this information, she also heard from Adebamiro's brother, Dotun. "I'm sure it is a loss to him – and someone has to say that," Dotun said. "It is not just a loss to us."He asked the judge to consider a lengthy sentence so the children can grow up without interference from their mother. "No matter how much love, effort I put into reassuring them... they are always reminded of his lack of presence," Dotun said.
Norris asked the judge to sentence Temitope to 12 years in prison. She claimed this was not a one-sided domestic abuse case, but instead a broken marriage with abuse coming from both parties.
The final trigger for this troubled marriage came last year when Adebamiro and his wife flew back from Nigeria together. As he showed her the cameras inside their home over his cellphone, Temitope saw the nanny's daughter inside the home, documents said. At one point, Temitope saw several texts and images on her husband's phone, which she took pictures of using her cellphone. Some of the pictures included images of her sister and the nanny's daughter, court document said.
Around 9 p.m. on the night of the killing, the couple had been talking and watching television on the couch when her husband discovered the photos she'd taken on her cellphone, according to court documents.
As he yelled at her, Temitope told police there was a power outage, the court documents said. Investigators checked with Delmarva Power, which indicated there was no power outage at the time, police said.
Temitope then told police that when the power returned, she found her husband in the first-floor bedroom lying in the bed. As she got closer to him, she saw a knife on the ground which she picked up and took to the kitchen, according to documents.
Temitope suggested to police that her husband stabbed himself and changed her story several times, according to court documents. Police found him around 12:40 a.m. with a single stab wound near his neck. She was charged with first-degree murder and has been held at the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution ever since.
Norris said the state offered Temitope a plea because the defense would have presented evidence from that night that could be considered a triggering event for extreme emotional distress. The state also wanted to avoid airing a difficult family situation.
Temitope was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter under a section of the code for extreme emotional distress and a weapons offense in September.van Amerongen said had Adebamiro still been alive, he could have faced 20 years to life for the abuse he inflicted on his wife.
"I respect the family members," she said. "But they have a vision of their brother not borne out in those videos."
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