A man from Mississippi has been declared guilty of murder and will face a lifetime in prison after confessing under oath that he fatally shot his wife and disposed of her body in a river, telling jurors, “She made me snap.”

Michael Owens, aged 37, from Edwards, was found guilty this week by a Hinds County jury on charges of murder and arson related to the tragic 2023 death of his wife, Ebony Owens. Her body was retrieved from the Big Black River following a missing person’s report, according to police statements. Ebony Owens’ “burnt” vehicle was discovered near their residence post-murder, leading to the arson charge.

“This trial, this case has been unsettling to this court,” remarked Hinds County Judge Faye Peterson while issuing Owens’s sentence on Monday, as reported by the local ABC station WAPT.

“Rarely does a case disturb this particular judge,” Peterson expressed. “Nonetheless, as I listened to the evidence in this case, the word that repeatedly crossed my mind was selfish.”

During his trial, Owens allegedly informed jurors that the couple had been in a heated argument when his wife reached for a gun, forcing him to shoot her. According to investigators, this account is just one of several stories Owens narrated following the initial disappearance of Ebony Owens.

“When I shot her, I said, ‘Baby, don’t die. Don’t leave me. Don’t die,'” Michael Owens said from the stand, according to WAPT.

“She made me snap,” he told jurors.

Owens’ lawyers argued that Ebony Owens’ murder was a crime of passion and there was not enough evidence to prove Owens premeditated the killing, according to reports.

“I just, I feared for my life,” Owens testified, according to NBC affiliate WLBT. “When I feared for my life, I just grabbed my gun. When I pointed my gun back, then when she turned her head like this, and that’s when I shot her. I was so mad I just shot her — shot her in the head.”

Owens said on the stand that he regrets what happened and that he and Ebony had a tumultuous relationship with allegations of unfaithfulness. The couple reportedly had four children together.

“A marriage is not easy,” he claimed, according to WAPT. “A marriage is what you make of it. A marriage is a job. We had our ups and downs, our differences.”