Claysburg Woman Sentenced to Life In Prison For Murdering Husband in 2018

The Claysburg woman convicted last month of first-degree murder in the 2018 shooting death of her husband has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bedford County President Judge Travis Livengood handed the life sentence to Nancy Focht, 76, on Oct. 27. Focht was found guilty after a three-day trial last month after a jury rejected her claims of self-defense after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her husband, David Focht Sr.

Nancy Focht was arrested in January 2019 after a lengthy police investigation into David Focht’s shooting. There was never any question that Nancy Focht pulled the trigger on the gun that killed her husband, but she claimed it was self-defense after suffering years of abuse at the hands of her husband.

According to Bedford State Police, troopers were dispatched to Focht’s Mountain Penny Lane home in Claysburg for a report of a domestic dispute with shots fired.

When police arrived at the home, they discovered that David Focht had suffered a single gunshot wound to his lower right chest area along with a silver Rossi M971 magnum revolver with unloaded rounds outside a shed.

When police questioned Nancy Focht, she told them the gun went off when she and her husband were struggling over it following a domestic dispute. Focht told police that she and her husband had been arguing all day and were outside a shed when her husband retrieved a gun and took a shot at her but missed. She told police that they then struggled over the gun, and it went off and shot her husband.

An autopsy performed on David Focht’s body showed no evidence of powder burns on his clothing, contradicting Nancy Focht’s claim of the gun going off at close range during a struggle.

During the trial, Focht’s defense team focused on years of abuse she claimed to have endured from her husband. Focht testified that there were incidents where her husband had pointed a gun at her while she slept and threatened to kill her if she left him. Focht also claimed years of mental abuse from her husband.

Deputy Attorney General Philip McCarthy focused on the day David Focht was shot and the fact that Nancy Focht initially lied about shooting her husband, calling into question everything she had said since her arrest.

Focht has been house at the Bedford County Jail since her arrest and will be transferred to a state prison to sere her sentence.