Michael Owen and Kelly Owen (Nassau County PD)
A 30-year-old New York man could spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his pregnant estranged wife three years ago and strangling her to death inside her home because he didn’t want to pay for the new baby’s health insurance. .
Authorities announced that Nassau County Superior Court Judge Robert A. McDonald on Thursday ordered Michael Owen to serve a 25-year-to-life sentence in a state correctional facility for the 2020 killing of 27-year-old Kelly Owen.
A Nassau County jury has convicted Michael Owen of second-degree murder in the brutal July 2023 death of his estranged wife.
“Michael Owen drove his car to the home of his estranged wife on January 15, 2020 with the intent to kill her,” District Attorney Ann T. Donnelly said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “Kelly was a young mother and pregnant with Owen’s child at the time of her brutal murder. She worked with children and dreamed of becoming a nurse. Michael Owen stole those dreams, and now he will pay for his crimes in prison. Our thoughts remain with Kelly’s family as they continue to mourn her loss.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Michael and Kelly Owen married in 2013, had a child together, then separated in March 2018. They continued the physical relationship for some time after the breakup, but authorities said that also ended when Michael Owen became violent.
Investigators concluded that Michael Owen decided to kill his wife, a nursing student, after she told him that she was pregnant with their second child. Prosecutors said Michael Owens already had financial problems as well as a new girlfriend and did not want another child. The evidence showed that he particularly did not want to pay for the new baby’s medical insurance.
“He didn’t want this baby,” said a Nassau police detective. Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said in a statement after his arrest. “He didn’t want to give her medical insurance. He had this new relationship he was involved in, and he was in a bad situation.”
According to the District Attorney’s Office, on January 15, 2020, Kelly Owen was at her apartment in the 1200 block of 1st Avenue in Farmingdale when the attack occurred. Kelly Owen’s apartment was at her parents’ house, and that morning, her father took her 6-year-old son to school. She and Michael Owen shared custody of the boy.
Prosecutors said Kelly Owen worked as an aftercare program assistant at a local elementary school between 3 and 6 p.m. When she failed to report sick or report to work that day, a colleague called her parents to find out where she was. Kelly Owen’s parents then discovered her lifeless body inside the apartment.
An autopsy concluded that she had been strangled to death with a “rope-like object” and was in the early stages of pregnancy.
Surveillance footage obtained by investigators showed that Michael Owen was in the victim’s neighborhood around 9:30 a.m. on the morning of her death.
“Michael Owen — who was working as a cell site technician — parked his car two blocks from Kelly’s home and turned off his phone before arriving in Farmingdale, making his cell phone’s location undetectable,” prosecutors wrote in the statement.
However, authorities said they recovered Michael Owen’s DNA from the area around the victim’s neck. He was arrested later that month and charged with murder.