Ex-Marine Michael Owen sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for killing pregnant, estranged wife

Frank Bretana said his first memory of his newborn daughter, Kelly, was her lying facedown asleep on her mother Diane’s chest in the hospital.

It was a memory of hope that sparked in him a “God-given love that bonds you to your child forever,” he said.

Three decades later, Bretana told a Nassau County courtroom full of grieving relatives — who gathered Thursday morning to see his daughter's estranged husband, Michael Owen, punished with a 25-years-to-life prison sentence for her murder — about a grimmer image.

“Now I have another memory. It’s Kelly. She’s lying facedown on her bed, she was cold and lifeless,” he said. “It’s an image no one should have to see. Diane’s screams, followed by a flurry of activity. The medic came out, put his hand on her shoulder, and told her that Kelly was gone.”

As Bretana spoke, Owen, wearing a coat and tie, sat at the defendant’s table facing straight ahead, with no reaction.

In August, it took a jury two hours to convict Owen, 30, a former U.S. Marine-turned-cell tower technician, of strangling Kelly Owen, 27, who was pregnant with his child, in her Farmingdale home.

“He killed her in a violent and personal way,” Bretana said. “He knew he had to continue until he knew she was gone. He knew he would have to watch her die.”

Kelly and Michael Owen were separated, but sharing custody of their daughter, Bryn, at the time of Kelly's death. She was living in an apartment on the same property as her parents’ home.

At the time, Kelly Owen worked as an aide at an aftercare program at a local elementary school during the afternoon. When she did not show up for work, a co-worker called Kelly’s parents, and they discovered their daughter's lifeless body, prosecutors said.

Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly presented evidence during the trial that Michael Owen’s car was seen two blocks from Kelly's home on the morning of her death. He shut off his phone during the time he was in the area, and he deleted text messages on her phone and his own phone on the day of the murder.

“Michael Owen drove to his estranged wife’s house on Jan. 15, 2020, with the intention of killing her,” said Donnelly. “Kelly was a young mother and pregnant with Owen’s child at the time of her brutal murder. She worked with children and had dreams of becoming a nurse. Michael Owen stole those dreams, and now he will pay for his crimes in prison.”

Bretana told the court how he had to tell his granddaughter, who was 6 at the time, that her mother was dead.

“We brought Bryn home — we had her in hiding. We went into Bryn’s room and told her that her mother was an angel in heaven. She went into her closet and started to cry,” he said.

Kelly Owen's best friend, Kelsey McWilliams, who delivered a victim's impact statement, said, “I looked up to her. She was the most caring person I know. She loved animals. She wouldn't hurt a fly.”

One of the most painful aspects of the murder was that Bryn will grow up without her mother, McWilliams said.

“Bryn was cheated,” she said. “She should be with the person who loved her the most, who read her Harry Potter books, who took her to Disneyland.”

Then her message turned to Michael Owen.

“I want you to think about your family and what you did to them," McWilliams said. "You will not be there for Bryn's childhood because of what you have done. My heart is broken.”

Michael Owen maintains he did not kill his ex-wife.

“I did not do this,” he said before his sentencing. His lawyer, Joseph Hanshe, has already filed an appeal of the conviction and vowed to continue fighting to clear his client.

“To this day we believe that he is not guilty and we will continue to fight this conviction,” Hanshe said.

Justice Robert McDonald denied Hanshe’s request to set aside the second-degree murder verdict.

McDonald said he struggled to be dispassionate in this case.

“The place you are going is a cold dark place, but not as cold and as dark as your heart is,” McDonald told Michael Owen before delivering the sentence. “It is my fervent hope that Bryn never have to see you or speak to you for the rest of your life.”