Eighty-Four Year Old Woman Asks For Reduced Sentence

By Staff in News on Sep 13, 2009 8:30PM

Rosemary Komyatti, an 84-year-old inmate currently serving a 100-year sentence in connection with the murder and dismemberment of her husband, is attempting to change her sentence. As one of the oldest women inmates in Indiana, Komyatti is claiming that she was the victim all along: a battered wife at the hands of her physically and verbally abusive alcoholic husband, Paul Komyatti Sr.

Calling herself “another Nicole Brown Simpson waiting to happen,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Komyatti alleges that she was asleep in 1983 when her teenage son held her husband down as her son-in-law stabbed Paul Komyatti Sr. more than 30 times, eventually severing his head with a hacksaw. His body was discovered washed up on the shore of Lake Michigan in several garbage bags. William Vandiver, her son-in-law, was executed in 1985 and her son, Paul Komyatti Jr., was released from prison in May, although his parole was revoked in August.

According to Komyatti’s request for sentence modification, if the battered women’s syndrome defense has been an option for her in 1983, it’s possible that she would not have been convicted of the charges to begin with. Komyatti is currently serving her time at the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis. She has been involved with different vocational opportunities, therapy groups, and recreational programs.

Post By: Anna Deem