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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJudge rules that woman who beat husband to death with a hammer will spend life in prison
The jury that convicted Marissa Devault in the January 2009 killing of Dale Harrell had spared her the death penalty in late April and instead handed down a life sentence. It was up to a judge to formally impose the sentence and decide whether Devault would have a chance at parole.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle heard tearful pleas for leniency from Devault's three daughters, but he picked the harsher punishment.
Steinle said he rejected Devault's claim that she committed the murder because she was a victim of domestic violence and instead noted that he believes she killed him out of greed. "There is nothing in this record of the defendant that would justify parole," Steinle said, adding that he didn't believe she was remorseful.
Prosecutors say Devault, 36, killed Harrell in a failed bid to collect on a life insurance policy to repay about $300,000 in loans from her boyfriend. Devault said she killed her husband in self-defense and told investigators he had physically and sexually abused her in the past. Harrell, 34, died nearly a month later at a hospice because of complications from his head injuries.
http://news.yahoo.com/woman-gets-life-killing-husband-hammer-212117477.html
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)It sounds like there are two theories consistent with many of the same mutual facts. Reaching a conclusion would require a searching investigation of those facts which, one hopes, the trial accomplished.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)The prosecution's star witness (Alan Flores) was Devault's boyfriend she met on a sugar-daddy dating website. When police eventually searched his computer they found child porn on it. Prosecutors gave him immunity for the child porn in exchange for testimony in the murder trial. Flores testified that Devault told him that she was going to either hire a hitman to kill her husband or do it herself and claim it was in self-defense. And that she was then going to collect on the insurance money and pay him back the money he loaned her.
It's messy there because obviously Flores is pressured to be that witness and abide by the prosecution's theory.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)There's also something of a "chicken and egg" situation conceivable in which the involvement with the boyfriend can be attributable to the abusive spousal relationship, or at least arise from a common set of psychological issues.
But when you go from spousal abuse being a mitigating or justifying consideration, to the point where, hey, as long as you are going to do that, you might as well get an additional benefit... At that point there may be a moral parity reached with the victim.
But, that's what juries are for.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)I would have pretty much discounted the statements of the guy given immunity from the child porn charges. Obviously he would say whatever the prosecution wanted him to.