SAN ANTONIO – Andre McDonald will move forward with an appeal more than four months after he was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of his wife, Andreen McDonald.
A hearing was held on Wednesday morning in the 399th District Court to start the appeals process.
Andre McDonald was found guilty in February on the lesser charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He also accepted a plea deal for a charge of tampering with evidence, which called for a 5-year sentence to be stacked on top of his 20-year sentence.
His attorney, John Convery, said they’re appealing the verdicts and sentences in both cases.
“In the case of manslaughter, the issues are of motion to suppress issues, evidentiary issues, and there is a deadly weapon finding. The court found that his foot was the deadly weapon and we are appealing that. Same with the tampering with evidence case,” Convery said. “Today was a status hearing. We have to purchase the record and get the record to the court of appeals and that was the reason for today’s hearing.”
BREAKING: More than 4 months after being sentenced Andre McDonald was back in a courtroom. A hearing was held to confirm that McDonald will be moving forward with an appeal. #ksatnews pic.twitter.com/lBTmCuvi66
— Erica Hernandez (@erica_KSAT) May 31, 2023
Andre McDonald was initially facing a first-degree felony murder charge in connection with Andreen McDonald’s death, as he was the prime suspect in her disappearance.
Family and friends reported her missing after she was last seen alive on Feb. 28, 2019. According to court testimony, Andre McDonald gave investigators conflicting statements on his wife’s whereabouts and then stopped cooperating after hiring an attorney.
After months of searching, officials found Andreen’s remains in July 2019 at a private property in far north Bexar County. Soon after the discovery, Andre McDonald was charged.
On Feb. 3, 2023, after 12 and a half hours of deliberations over two days, the jury found Andre not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
The prosecution said during closing arguments that Andre McDonald killed his wife at their home because he was enraged that she was having an affair, thought she wanted to have him killed by her lover and wanted to open a business in her own name without him knowing about it.
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