The woman convicted of luring her husband to a brutal death at the hands of her lover at Ravenswood Riverfront Park received the maximum sentence allowed under the law last Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Roseann Osborne, 27, was convicted on February 13 of first-degree murder and conspiracy for her role in the September 2007 death of her husband, Mohamed Mahrous.
On the night of September 17, 2007, Mahrous was brutally bludgeoned to death with a hammer by Larry Samuel White, the man with whom Osborne had been having an affair.
The jury included a recommendation of mercy in their first-degree murder verdict.
White received the same conviction and was sentenced for his role in the crime last December.
On Thursday, Osborne and her attorneys appeared in Circuit Court before Judge Thomas C. Evans, III, for a hearing on post-trial motions and sentencing.
The defense had filed motions requesting a new trial, a post-verdict judgment of acquittal and an arrest of judgment.
Evans denied all three motions and moved forward with the sentencing hearing.
The defense asked the court to consider concurrent sentences for Osborne, citing her relatively young age and lack of a prior criminal history.
Osborne herself addressed the court asking for leniency and again put blame for the murder on White.
“I don’t know how I got into this situation,” she said. “I have three babies at home…he [White] took Mohamed from the children and me. I don’t know how I did this, but I never meant to get into this situation…I never knew it’d come to this.”
Osborne told the court that she knew God could forgive her for what she had done and asked the court for that consideration as well.
Tarak Wasily, a friend of Mohamed’s from North Carolina, addressed the court on behalf of the Mahrous family in Egypt.
“I forgive what they did,” Wasily said. “God forgives us, and I forgive her.”
However, Wasily asked the court to consider the facts of the case in imposing sentence.
“There are other ways to leave a husband, but not with a hammer to the side of the head,” he said. “Mohamed didn’t deserve this.”
Prosecuting Attorney Jim McHugh argued that the judge impose sentences to run consecutively in the case, the maximum possible, due to the heinous nature of the crime.
“They lured [Mahrous] up to West Virginia; they lured him to Riverfront Park,” McHugh argued. “As the defendant sat three feet away from him, he was bludgeoned to death.
“You take vows of ‘til death do us part,’ but you don’t think that means murder,” he said.
In the end, Evans sided with the state and the jury in the case and was not swayed by Osborne’s pleas.
“Roseann Osborne stands before this court this morning and asks for forgiveness,” he said. “God can forgive; however, my job is not one of forgiveness, but to impose a sentence that is fair and just based on the facts of the crime.
“I’m satisfied that the jury was absolutely correct,” he said. “She just didn’t want to deal with Mr. Mahrous anymore.”
Evans said he was bound by law to jury’s recommendation of mercy but would not offer anything more than that.
“The jury in this case found mercy on this woman and the court is bound by that mercy, but not for further mercy,” he said. “The court sees nothing in this case to justify further leniency.”
Evans sentenced Osborne to the maximum prescribed by law for both verdicts.
For first-degree murder, Osborne received a life sentence, and due to the recommendation of mercy, she will be eligible for parole after 15 years. For conspiracy, Evans sentenced Osborne to one to five years in the state penitentiary.
Evans ordered that the sentences be served consecutively. Osborne will also receive credit for time served since her arrest in September 2007.
At the earliest, Osborne may be eligible for parole in 2023; her co-conspirator, White, also received the same sentence.
Osborne has thirty days to appeal Judge Evans’ decision in the case.
