An appellate jury this week upheld the conviction of a woman who killed her husband, cut him up and then took the body with her when she moved from the Hamilton Township home they shared.
Loretta Doyle Burroughs, who will turn 66 next week, is serving a 55-year sentence for the killing of her husband, Daniel Burroughs, in 2007.
She had told people he left her for a waitress in Florida. But, when investigators came to her Ventnor home in 2013, they found Danny Burroughs — in three containers inside the closet of a guest bedroom. Over the years, plastic garbage bags and a variety of air-freshening products had been added to cover the smell of the decaying body.
Doyle Burroughs had been moving into a new home in Sea Isle when investigators came to talk to her, and tell her that they were searing the Ventnor home.
Doyle Burroughs was convicted in 2015. But, she appealed it, saying prior convictions should not have been used against her since they had been nearly two decades earlier. But the appellate judges found that the fact that the original crime happened nearly seven years before she was caught negated that.
She also argued against a Little Red Riding Hood analogy the prosecutor in the case used to describe the woman who presented herself to others as a kindly grandmother but was really a cold-blooded killer. He also said she had gotten lots of favors and was hoping the jury would give her one more, with an acquittal.
Doyle Burroughs' attorney, Anthony Previti, objected to that at the time.
“The defendant is still asking for one more favor,” Levy told jurors. “You are the only thing standing in her way.”
Since-retired Judge Michael Donio cautioned the jury that no one was asking for favors.
“I don’t want a favor,” Levy said at the end of his closing. “I want justice for Danny Burroughs.
