ROCKVILLE, Md. — A Montgomery County jury has convicted a Takoma Park, Maryland, man of killing his fiancée, an act motivated by his desire to end her pregnancy, according to prosecutors.
Two years after police officers found 36-year-old Maria Mbunga stabbed multiple times in her belly, neck and chest in the apartment she shared with her fiance, Thierry Nkusu, a two-week jury trial resulted in the first-degree murder conviction of Nkusu, a native of Congo.
“This man did not want this child. He had written letters to the family of Ms. Mbunga in Angola because he didn’t want to take financial responsibility,” said John McCarthy, state’s attorney for Montgomery County.
Prosecutors also alluded to a falling out between Nkusu and his family over his yearlong relationship with Mbunga prior to the killing.
Mbunga was 16 weeks pregnant at the time of her death, according to the findings of a medical examiner. Maryland law requires a fetus must be at least 20 weeks to allow for murder charges.
“We hope that the judge at the time of sentencing will take that into consideration. I will tell you in large measure, that’s why … we will seek life without the possibility of parole,” McCarthy said.
Nkusu will be sentenced in July.
