Jury told former Mo. radio reporter killed wife for money

WOBURN, Mass. — A prosecutor has told a jury that a former Missouri radio reporter accused of poisoning his wife with antifreeze killed her so he could collect $250,000 in insurance money.

James Keown is charged with killing his wife, Julie, in September 2004 after lacing her Gatorade with antifreeze. The couple lived in Waltham.

Prosecutor Nathaniel Yeager told the jury Monday that Keown had been fired from his job and was deeply in debt when he began poisoning his wife.

Keown’s lawyer agreed Julie Keown died from ingesting ethylene glycol — a chemical found in antifreeze — but he said she may have committed suicide or been accidentally poisoned.

More than a year after his wife’s death, Keown was arrested in Jefferson City, where he was a reporter and talk show host at radio station KLIK/1240 AM.