EVERETT — A Bothell-area man is facing at least a decade in prison for the December 2014 killing of his wife.
Wesley Bartolome Mangulabnan, 49, pleaded guilty to second-degree domestic-violence murder during a brief hearing Wednesday in Snohomish County Superior Court.
He faces 10 to 18 years behind bars under state sentencing guidelines. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors plan to ask for the mid-range punishment of roughly 14.5 years at Mangulabnan’s Jan. 19 sentencing hearing.
The defendant admitted he attacked Gina Mangulabnan, 48, with a box cutter. He then turned the knife on himself in an apparent suicide attempt.
“She was in the process of leaving him,” deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said.
Gina Mangulabnan died Dec. 6, two days after her children found her bleeding to death on the floor. The defendant was lying beside her.
She’d had obtained another apartment for herself and the children to live, and was at her former home, cleaning and packing her belongings, when the attack occurred.
A note found on an open laptop computer, written to one of the couple’s sons, detailed where to find cash and what should be done with the defendant’s property, including a car and “private movies” he wanted deleted.
Wesley Mangulabnan initially was booked for investigation of first-degree murder because the note suggested premeditation. There were questions, however, about when the note was written and under what circumstances, Darrow said.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews.
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