LEXINGTON, S.C. — A 55-year-old Lexington woman has been sentenced for the 2016 shooting death of her husband that followed evidence of extensive planning.
The 11th Circuit Solicitor's Office released a statement late Friday announcing that Kimberly Fletcher Groh had been sentenced to 30 years for the death of Michael Bryan.
"Tragic does not do it justice," Judge Walton J. McCleod IV said during sentencing. “This case has taken an emotional toll on everyone involved, especially the family of Michael Bryan."
The case stems from an incident that happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 30, 2016. At that time, the Lexington County 911 Center received a call from Groh who claimed that her husband had shot himself with a Winchester rifle. However, she later changed her story, saying the gun accidentally fired while she was attempting to remove it from the bed as her husband slept.
Crime lab analysis found that her DNA was on the trigger rather than that of her husband. Additional investigation and a search warrant uncovered two plastic bags in Groh's purse. One contained a "powdery substance" that authorities identified as Temazepam. The second had opened and unopened capsules of the substance. The drug was also found in food containers from a meal Groh had prepared and served to Bryan.
According to the solicitor's office, she and her husband Bryan, who owned a local plumbing company, had been married since 2008. The substance was eventually found in his blood by way of toxicology analysis.
Then, an analysis of Groh's phone and laptop revealed searches back to 2015 regarding "ways to poison your spouse without detection" which prosecutors used to establish Groh's state of mind ahead of the shooting.
The office also included several other searches that showed a disturbing trend, including:
- “Top Ten Most Deadly Poisons Known to Mankind” on 11/1/16
- “Buy Zyklon B” on 11/1/16
- “Buy Arsenic” on 11/1/16
- “How much arsenic will kill a human” on 11/6/16
- “How much arsenic is deadly” on 11/11/16
- “What is a Deadly Dose of Arsenic” on 11/13/16
- “How to use a .223 rifle” on 11/15/16
- “load a .223 rifle” on 11/15/16
- “How to shoot a Winchester .223” on 11/25/16
The investigation would uncover that Groh purchased arsenic from a company called Lab Depot on two occasions in 2016. A look at various financial records later revealed a possible motive for the crime. The solicitor's office said that Groh was in financial distress with her husband's business struggling.
She was also listed as the sole beneficiary in Bryan's will and would have received $500,000 from his life insurance policy. She filed a claim just a short time after his death, authorities said.
Furthermore, a scene analysis by CSI expert Steve Derrick also chipped away at her narrative of the events on the night Bryan died. suggesting they couldn't have occurred the way she claimed they did. He said that Groh fired the rifle from the foot of the bed, striking the victim in the heart.
