Woman sentenced for killing husband by setting him on fire

GALENA, Mo. -- A woman who doused her ex-husband in gasoline and set him aflame has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the killing.

Circuit Judge John Moody said Barbara Ann Banning was responsible for the cruelest murder to ever come before his court. He sentenced the 60-year-old Verona woman on Friday in Fred Bounous' death.

"No one's going to miss him more than I will," she said before being handed concurrent sentences of 25 years for second-degree murder and 10 years for first-degree arson. A first-degree murder charge was reduced as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Assistant Public Defender Brian Smith described Banning as a caring woman who snapped after years of emotional and physical abuse. Relatives of Bounous have questioned the abuse claims but Lawrence County Prosecutor Robert George said there was no excuse for the defendant's behavior regardless.

"No matter what the relationship was like in the past," he said, "there was no evidence the defendant was pushed into that situation."

Authorities say Bounous was recovering from knee surgery, sitting in a recliner and drinking coffee on the morning of Sept. 17, 2004. That was when Banning doused her ex-husband with gasoline, lit a piece of newspaper on a stove and threw it at him.

She ran outside, yelling for help and neighbors put out the fire. But Bounous died several hours later.