Murder On Carnival Cruise Ship

This item was written by Johanna Jainchill, who covers cruising for Travel Weekly. Jainchill is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.
A California man charged with murdering his wife on a Carnival cruise ship in 2009 has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The Associated Press reports that the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego says 57-year-old Robert McGill admitted Thursday to intentionally killing his wife of five years, Shirley McGill, in their cabin aboard the 2,056-passenger Carnival Elation.

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The couple was on a five-day Mexican cruise to Cabo San Lucas on the Elation in July 2009 when Shirley McGill was found dead in their cabin.
A San Diego news station said an FBI special agent said McGill had stated that he killed his wife in the bathroom of their cabin with his bare hands.

Shirley McGill was killed during a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas,

CAPTION

California Department of Motor Vehicles/The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Court papers filed by prosecutors after incident alleged that Robert McGill, of Los Angeles, had gotten "extremely intoxicated" during a port call in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the day of the incident.
In the hours after Shirley McGill was found dead, Robert McGill was reported to have confessed to the killing to other passengers, the ship's doctor, and its captain.
The AP reported that McGill faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 8. He was initially charged with first-degree murder and would have been eligible for the death penalty because the killing occurred during a kidnapping.

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