A Northeast Cobb man has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to killing his wife last year, the Cobb District Attorney’s Office said. 
Donny Eaton, 65, entered the plea on Monday, when jury selection for his trial was expected to begin. The negotiated deal was accepted by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley, who handed down the sentence.
He was charged with malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Eaton was arrested on April 4, 2017 after Roxane Tenore Eaton, 66, was found with what the Cobb DA said were “countless” stab wounds about her face and neck at their home on Liberty Hill Road.
According to the DA’s office, Eaton initially cut her throat with a pocket knife. Tenore Eaton had purchased a home in Florida where she wanted the couple to live to be closer to family, but he was opposed to the move.
After the stabbings, Eaton visited his mother’s grave in Floyd County, and confessed to emergency dispatchers there that he had stabbed his wife, the Cobb DA said. A welfare check was made at the Eaton home, where Tenore Eaton was found, and he turned himself into the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Cobb DA.
“Donny Eaton took the life of his wife in a gruesome manner, with it appearing that he was attempting to decapitate her, all because she wanted to be closer to her children and grandchildren in Florida to live out the remainder of their lives,” Cobb senior assistant district attorney Patricia Hull said in a statement. “Donny Eaton refused to leave their home in Georgia. If he couldn’t have her here with him in Georgia, he didn’t want her children to have her, either.”
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