Doctor sentenced for wife's killing

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A prominent Oklahoma City doctor was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for killing his wife on Valentine's Day. <br><br>District Judge Ray Elliott also ordered

Tuesday, January 8th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A prominent Oklahoma City doctor was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for killing his wife on Valentine's Day.

District Judge Ray Elliott also ordered Dr. John B. Hamilton to pay $11,104 for the cost of his stay in the Oklahoma County jail. It was the first such order in Oklahoma County.

In billing Hamilton, prosecutors cited a 1999 statute that allows a judge to assess the cost of incarceration for people confined in the county jail.

By statute, 85 percent of the money will be used to reimburse the Oklahoma County jail. The district attorney's office, a victim's compensation fund and the court clerk's revolving fund will each receive 5 percent.

Hamilton's attorney, Mack Martin, had said the request was ``ridiculous'' because his client had been denied bail.

Hamilton, 53, was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the Feb. 14, 2000, killing of his wife, Susan Hamilton. She had been strangled with a necktie, hit with a blunt object and her face was struck repeatedly on the marble floor, investigators said.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Susan Hamilton suspected her husband was having an affair, considered leaving him and talked of divorce two days before she was killed.

Hamilton's attorneys contended he did not kill his wife and that evidence against him was circumstantial.