Franklin County jury convicts Madison Township man in 2021 strangling death, burning of wife
A Franklin County jury has convicted a man of murdering his wife in 2021 by strangling her and then setting her body on fire in their home in Madison Township, near Columbus’ Southeast Side.
Mamadou Diallo, 43, originally of Guinea, appeared in court with an interpreter during his trial last week and this week on charges of murder, aggravated arson, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in the death of his wife, Fatoumata Diallo, 32.
The jury returned its verdict Wednesday, finding Mamadou Diallo guilty on all charges. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen McIntosh will sentence Diallo on July 26 to a mandatory sentence of life in prison. McIntosh will decide when Diallo will get the opportunity for parole after at least 15 years.
During the trial, Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Beau Wenger said Mamadou Diallo strangled his wife with a USB cord Sept. 30, 2021, and used a charcoal lighter fluid container to set her on fire, burning a room of their home and destroying evidence.
When Diallo called 911 around 1 p.m. that day, Wenger claimed he told a dispatcher he arrived home to find there was a fire and immediately got their young children out.
Wenger alleged that video from the home’s video doorbell contradicts Diallo’s version of events.
The video shows that Diallo arrived home about 40 to 50 minutes before the fire, that he came and went from the home before he brought the children outside and then looked down into the room where Fatoumata Diallo was found, Wenger claimed.
When the firefighters got there, Diallo was calm and did not ask anybody to go in to save his wife, Wenger said.
Wenger told the jury to look at the timeline.
“I ask you to use your common sense,” Wenger said.
Diallo’s defense attorney, Robert Krapenc, said during the trial that Diallo is only charged because authorities found out the couple had a rocky relationship. Both filed for divorce in the year before Fatoumata Diallo’s death but did not go through with it.
Krapenc claimed Mamadou Diallo did not destroy evidence but rather willingly offered evidence to authorities, such as video from the doorbell camera.
That Mamadou Diallo did this is “just their best guess,” Krapenc said.
More court news: DNA evidence leads to conviction of Columbus man in two cold cases from the 1990s
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin Co. jury convicts Madison Twp. man in wife's strangling death
