Jury: Husband guilty of wife's murder

NEW PORT RICHEY -- A jury decided at 5:30 p.m. that David Andrew White is guilty of second-degree murder in the 2005 death of his wife Andrea.

"I didn't kill my wife," White told the jury while testifying on his own behalf this morning.

White, 40 faces life in prison. Circuit Judge Thane Covert ordered him taken into custody pending sentencing on June 6.

The state has conceded there is no physical evidence linking White to her July 11, 2005 death and the case against him was circumstantial.

Andrea White's body was found dressed for bed and submerged in a pond miles from home, state witnesses told the jury, while the husband never reported her missing and even moved away on the day she was found.

But medical experts testified this week that she did not die a natural death. They surmised from the circumstances of her death -- she was barefoot, without her purse or the insulin she needs for her diabetes -- that she was murdered in another location and her body dumped in the water where it was found on July 14.

Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

UPDATE: The fate of David Andrew White, who faces life in prison for the 2005 death of wife Andrea, was placed in the hands of the jury at 3:20 p.m.

"This not a homicide case," Assistant Public Defender Dean Livermore told jurors in his closing this afternoon. "There is no proof that anyone caused her death."

Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis argued for the state that White's testimony this morning was inconsistent with the testimony of a host of state witnesses and law enforcement officers.

Then he offered this sarcasm to the jury:

"Everybody here hasn't told the truth but David White," the prosecutor. "Everyone here distorted their statement except David White. Only he has told the truth."

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NEW PORT RICHEY -– David Andrew White is on trial this week for killing his wife, Andrea, in July 2005.

But it is she who tried to kill him, he told the jury this morning as he testified in his own defense.

His wife had already demanded a divorce days before, White testified, when their marriage exploded the night of July 11, 2005 -– the night authorities believe his wife was killed.

They were intimate that night. But it ended in a fight. White went to sleep.

"Next thing I know, I got hit in the face," he testified. "I opened my eyes, and there she stood. She's standing over me with a pistol in her hand."

White's eyes turned red. Crying, he described what happened next:

"I want my life," Andrea White declared, he said, "and she pulled the trigger. It didn't go. I thought I was gonna die."

White said he shoved his wife into a wall. Then she stormed out of the house and got into a vehicle he didn't recognize that disappeared down the street. He never saw his wife again, he said.

It is the same story White has told before. But he has told other, conflicting stories as well, authorities say, never reported his wife missing and moved to New York on July 14 -– the day she was found dead.

Andrea White, a 33-year-old mother of four, was found miles from home. She was submerged in shallow water, barefoot, clad in her night clothes, boxer shorts and a T-shirt pulled over her chest. She was without her purse or emergency insulin kit for her diabetes, all of which were found at the house.

Authorities say there is no physical evidence that she was killed, but also no evidence that she died a natural death. The strange circumstances of her death, and her husband's suspicious behavior while she was missing, led to the second-degree murder charge he is on trial for this week. White, 40, faces life in prison.

"Did you cause the death of your wife?" asked Assistant Public Defender Dean Livermore.

"I would never hurt my wife," White cried. "I loved my wife."

Then Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis cross-examined White. Hadn't he had several years of law enforcement training and education, the prosecutor asked, and once guarded prisoners for the Department of Juvenile Justice? White agreed he had.

So why didn't that training tell him to call for help after being threatened at gunpoint by his wife? "Why didn't you call 911?" Halkitis asked. "'Help, my wife is unstable and she has a handgun.'"

"I was trying to protect her, also," White said.

Closing arguments will take place after lunch.

Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer