A Missouri woman will spend a decade behind bars after admitting she shot her sleeping husband in the back of the head because financial difficulties made divorce too costly.

On Monday, Sixteenth Circuit Court Judge Jalilah Otto sentenced 42-year-old Melanie Biggins to 10 years in state prison for the 2022 killing of her husband, Etienne L. McEwan, according to court records. Biggins reached a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, averting a possible life sentence.

Authorities say officers with the Kansas City Missouri Police Department responded to a 911 call around 1 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2022, at a home in the 1700 block of Gillespie Place. Biggins and McEwan’s two young daughters, ages 10 and 11, waved down first responders, who went upstairs and found Biggins attempting CPR on her husband. Emergency personnel pronounced McEwan dead at the scene.

Initially, Biggins claimed she woke to the sound of a gunshot and did not see who fired the weapon. She told investigators she found the front door open, suggesting an intruder might have been responsible. However, police found no evidence of forced entry and quickly ruled out suicide.

Detectives recovered a pillow with a bullet hole and blood at the foot of the bed, along with a handgun containing a spent shell casing under a bunk bed in a nearby room. Purchase records showed Biggins had bought the revolver just a month earlier. She later acknowledged that she had hoped to leave McEwan for another man but was unable to afford a divorce.

Both daughters reported waking to a gunshot and finding their mother downstairs before returning to discover McEwan lying in bed, prompting one of them to call 911. Biggins initially denied owning a handgun or leaving the bedroom, but ultimately admitted to purchasing the weapon and expressed a desire to end her marriage.

In sentencing Biggins, Judge Otto accepted the plea deal negotiated by public defender Edward S. Berrigan and prosecutors, resulting in a 10-year prison term for voluntary manslaughter.