GUILTY MO - Tara Mauldin, 30, brutally murdered, Springfield, 2 Sept 2014

A husband accused for the second-degree murder of his wife told police he did beat his wife sometime late Monday or early Tuesday, but someone later came into their home and “finished her off.”

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson charged Daniel O. Mauldin, 36, of Springfield Wednesday evening for the second-degree murder of his wife, 30-year-old Tara Mauldin.

Police found Tara’s body at the couple’s home on S. Kentwood Ave. Tuesday morning.

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Springfield police have obtained cellphones they believe might contain video of Daniel Mauldin assaulting his wife in the hours before she died in early September.

The defendant is claiming, according to police, that his wife, Tara, had asked him to assault her so she could videotape it and that they discussed what would happen on the video. He also told police, according to a search warrant document, that she posted video to an unnamed website to "communicate with men other than him"...

Police are not saying in any documents that they give credence to Daniel Mauldin's claims, only that they are seeking evidence from the phones.

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Daniel O. Mauldin, 37, was sentenced Friday in Greene County court to 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife last year, according to Greene County prosecutors. They call the case an example of how domestic abuse can evolve into a deadly "cycle of violence."

In September 2014, police found Tara Mauldin, 30, dead at the couple's Springfield residence. She had been severely beaten and bruised, according to court documents. Police and prosecutors said the victim's more than "100 bruises and contusions, multiple broken ribs and a skull fracture" were the result of domestic abuse...

On Friday, he changed his plea, admitting to the second-degree murder of his wife, according to court documents.

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