A Florida renovator guilty of murdering his wife after she refused to go on 'Zombie House Flipping' TV show with him

• A Florida man was found guilty of murdering his wife after she refused to go on a TV show with him.
• David Tronnes spent thousands renovating his Orlando home, hoping to get on 'Zombie House Flipping.'

A Florida man has been convicted of murdering his wife after she refused to appear on a home renovation TV series with him.

A jury ruled that David Tronnes beat and strangled his wife Shanti Cooper-Tronnes to death in 2018, the local state attorney's office said in a statement.

Tronnes had spent thousands of dollars renovating the couples' home and hoped to appear on the reality television show "Zombie House Flipping," in which participants flip dilapidated properties.

The high cost of the renovations had been taking a toll on their marriage, the office said.

Days before her death, the couple met with producers of the show, and Cooper-Tronnes abruptly walked out of the meeting, The Guardian reported.

During the renovations Tronnes stayed in the garage and his wife slept in a one-bedroom studio on the property.

Evidence presented at the trial showed that Cooper-Tronnes was killed in the bedroom and that Tronnes had tried to clean up before police arrived.

He later claimed that he found her body in the bathtub, but the medical examiner said that the evidence did not support this claim, per the local state attorney's statement.

Investigators with the Orlando Police Department observed that Tronnes showed little remorse during his interrogation and never shed a tear over his wife's death, said the attorney's office.

Tronnes was sentenced to life in prison following a six-day trial, the office said.

Cooper-Tronnes' son from a previous relationship, Jackson Cooper, said in a news conference that hearing the sentence felt like "five years of struggle and pain lifted off of our shoulders."

"It feels good inside that he's finally where he is," Cooper said. "We can move on knowing that he's where he's supposed to be — where he's meant to be."