ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — A jury convicted a Florida man of murdering his wife and shooting his dog, even though he claimed self-defense.
Timothy Kramer testified in court on Aug. 5, 2026. (Court TV)
Timothy Kramer, 54, never denied shooting and killing his estranged wife, Rosa Kramer, in their home, but maintained that he feared for his life when he pulled the trigger. The jury deliberated for less than three hours on Thursday before finding him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder and animal cruelty.
The defendant sat expressionless as the judge immediately sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kramer took the stand on Wednesday as the sole witness for the defense and told the jury that the victim had a history of violence toward him. He detailed an incident in the kitchen when he told his wife that her lasagna tasted like garbage, and in response, she allegedly used her hand in a chopping motion to attack his neck. “I went completely down to the ground. I just lay, buckled, crumbled,” he said. “And after that, she kind of looked over to me and said, ‘Remember what I can do.'” Kramer testified that the moment “never left my mind” as he faced his wife on July 23, 2024.
Prosecutors said that Kramer left his overnight job after less than 90 minutes of work to return to his home and lie in wait for Rosa Kramer to arrive to pick up some belongings. The defendant denied lying in wait, saying that he told the victim he would be there and that he had simply left work because he was so stressed and depressed that he was unable to focus on his job.
The defendant testified that when Rosa Kramer arrived, she was “distraught, aggravated,” and he suspected that she may have been intoxicated. She allegedly grew angrier when he said he didn’t know where her mother’s pan was and when he refused to sell her his share of their property for $10,000.
Rosa Kramer allegedly stormed down the home’s hallway and into the couple’s bedroom. When Kramer followed her, he said she shut the door behind him. “I found that very odd, weird, like I was being boxed in.”
When Rosa Kramer, in a rage, allegedly slammed her hand down on a dresser in the bedroom near a gun, “that’s the point where I got scared,” Kramer testified. “She had training. She was a martial arts expert. She was very close to the gun and I was at a distance…I was very afraid at that point. I feared for my life at that point.”
Kramer said he edged closer to the dresser and the gun, but when he did so, Rosa Kramer charged at him and began kicking his knees. The defendant had testified earlier in the trial that he had “lost count” of how many knee surgeries he had undergone. He tried to push her away, but she quickly regained her balance, Kramer testified. “She looked at me, and she said, ‘You piece of f—ing s—, I am going to kill you.'” At that point, he said, he reached for the gun and fired.
While the defendant said he blindly fired the gun and had no idea the couple’s dog was in the room, he said the animal must have gotten between them because it was also struck.
The dog, named Cody, survived its injuries.
In the hours after the shooting, Kramer admitted he didn’t seek any help for his wife or the dog, but only texted his sister. He described himself as “zombie-ish, not really coherent” and said that he moved the victim’s car and pretended to be her in messages with her sister “to buy time to figure out what the heck I was gonna do.” The defendant eventually went to his sister’s house, where authorities arrested him shortly afterward.
