Kimeses convicted of murder in death of elderly widow

NEW YORK - A mother-and-son scam team were convicted of murder, robbery and other counts Thursday in the death of an 82-year-old millionaire widow - even though her body has never been found.

The jury forewoman pronounced "guilty" 118 times - 58 times for Sante Kimes and 60 times for Kenneth Kimes - in connection with their plot to murder Irene Silverman, a former Radio City Music Hall dancer, and steal her $10 million mansion.

The jury of eight women and four men began deliberating shortly after 2 p.m. Monday following a 13-week trial.

The indictment said the Kimeses, who are former Las Vegans, killed Silverman as part of their plan to steal the elegant six-story, beaux-arts mansion her late husband Sam had left her.

Silverman vanished July 5, 1998, the day the Kimeses were arrested on a stolen car warrant from Cedar City, Utah.

But for the bad $14,900 check they wrote to pay for the green 1997 Lincoln Town Car, the Kimeses might have remained at large much longer after Silverman vanished, and might never have been charged with murder.

When police arrested them, the Kimeses had not disposed of Silverman's personal documents or the plethora of other suspicious items they had.

In the car, police found loaded 9 mm and .22-caliber pistols, a red wig and two fright masks, plastic handcuffs, $30,000 in cash, a stun gun box, syringes, and a pink liquid similar to a known "date rape" drug.

They also found cassettes of Silverman's telephone conversations - secretly taped by the Kimeses - and a forged deed that transferred her townhouse to the Kimeses for a fraction of its nearly $10 million value.

Sante Kimes, 65, and her 25-year-old son face up to life imprisonment at sentencing before state Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller on June 27.

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