Convicted Holts Summit killer dies in prison

A Holts Summit woman convicted of killing her husband has died in prison.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said Sandra Plunkett died in prison, but did not say when she died or how she died. An online obituary posted by Sassmann’s Chapel said Plunkett died Friday at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri. She was 44.

Plunkett was convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of her husband, Paul Plunkett, a retired police officer. Prosecutors told jurors she killed her husband to get his life insurance money to finance her heroin habit. Sandra Plunkett’s defense said she was a battered spouse who feared her husband would kill her.

An appeals court upheld her conviction in 2015.

Sandra Plunkett’s funeral is set for Thursday in Bland, Missouri.