Paulno takes plea, sentenced to 25 years for murder of husband

Lori A. Paulno, 41, Coffey, plead guilty Friday to second degree murder on a plea agreement and received a sentence of 25 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the murder of her paraplegic husband, Kirk Paulno, in July 2001. The plea was made before Judge Stephen K. Griffin.

Paulno’s jury trial was set to begin on Jan. 10 in Clinton County, on a change of venue. In exchange for the plea, Assistant Attorney General Bob Attsens and Daviess County Prosecutor Julia Filley agreed to reduce the murder charge from first degree to second degree and to drop additional charges of abandonment of a corpse and stealing.

Paulno was charged in August, 2002, with first degree murder in the death of her husband, Kirk G. Paulno, after human remains found on a burn pile were identified as those of her husband. She was initially charged with abandonment of a corpse after the remains were found behind a house on State Highway MM near Gallatin. The murder charge was added after investigators determined that Kirk Paulno had been shot to death.

The stealing charge was added after it was discovered that she had collected public assistance benefits for her husband after his disappearance.

Paulno has been held at Midwest Security Housing in Pattonsburg. Her attorney was Richard “Gene” McFadin of Gallatin. She had planned to claim that she suffered from battered spouse syndrome and that the shooting was in self-defense, according to an article printed in the St. Joseph News-Press on Jan. 8, 2005. McFadin stated in the article that he felt Paulno had made a wise decision, considering that first degree murder carries life without parole.