Victor David guilty
Published 9:00 pm Monday, May 21, 2001
Second jury believes he assaulted his wife; sentencing on June 18
By Scott North
Herald Writer
When they came to place him in handcuffs Monday, Victor David asked for a little more time.
"Just a moment, please," David, 61, told the Snohomish County marshal who was waiting to escort him to jail. He briefly read from a court document, pocketed his glasses and then quietly submitted.
Almost exactly two years after being arrested and charged with repeatedly abusing his wife on a filthy sailboat, David was convicted Monday of second-degree assault.
It was his second trial in eight months on allegations that he had isolated and pummeled his wife, Linda David, 52, at waterfront locations from Tacoma to Everett.
The first trial ended in a hung jury. Jurors this time had no difficulty believing prosecutors, who maintained David was the person responsible for his wife’s brain damage, blindness, broken bones and scars.
"There was overwhelming circumstantial evidence, a lot of evidence actually," said juror Bill Quinlan, 39, a landscaper from Everett.
Jurors deliberated all day Friday without announcing a verdict. They were back behind closed doors only about an hour Monday before telling Judge Thomas Wynne they had reached agreement.
Quinlan said that all of the jurors had obviously spent a lot of time over the weekend privately thinking about the case.
The decision was announced at about 11:30 a.m., and David was immediately taken into custody.
"There’s a credibility factor here," David said when a reporter asked his reaction.
| David timeline
1985: State Department of Social and Health Services begins paying Victor David to provide in-home care for his wife, whom he claims has multiple sclerosis. The couple is living on the Tacoma waterfront. 1995: Victor David tells social workers he is moving his boats to Everett. He still demands payment for services to his wife, but refuses meetings with social workers, who are concerned Linda David may no longer be alive. Jan. 31, 1997: Police are called to an Everett marina when Victor David refuses to allow a state social worker to visit with his wife. Linda David is found inside the boat, emaciated, brain-damaged and scarred. She is covered in filth and barely able to move. May 25, 1999: Victor David is arrested and charged with second-degree assault. Sept. 21, 2000: Victor David’s first trial begins. A mistrial is declared 24 days later when jurors are unable to reach a unanimous verdict. April 30, 2001: Second trial begins. May 21, 2001: Jury convicts Victor David of second-degree assault.
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1980: Victor David marries Linda David (right).The defense knew it was in trouble Friday based on the apparent mood of jurors when they went home for the weekend, Hershman said. The lawyer said he’d prepared David for bad news.
"I told him before he walked in he was going down for the count," Hershman said.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 18. Deputy prosecutor Kathy Webber said she’ll be seeking exceptional punishment for David, above and beyond the roughly 1 1/2years he’s already spent behind bars while awaiting his first trial.
She convinced the judge to increase David’s bail from $20,000 to $150,000, after telling him the man has been living in his car and faces almost certain deportation back to his native Canada.
Under state sentencing guidelines, the standard punishment for second-degree assault is three to nine months in jail. The maximum punishment is 10 years in prison.
Prosecuting Attorney Jim Krider declined to say how much punishment his office will seek.
He praised Webber for her work on the case, which he said was in a shambles when first sent to prosecutors in the fall of 1998. The state Attorney General had been investigating the case for 1 1/2years, but witness interviews were lacking, and there was an absence of medical information regarding the victim’s condition, Krider said.
Linda David was removed from her husband’s decrepit vessel in 1997 after a state social worker went to a marina at the mouth of the Snohomish River in Everett looking for the couple. David was collecting $500 a month from the state as his wife’s caregiver.
Prosecutors had called Linda David as a witness in her husband’s first trial, but she gave confusing and contradictory testimony regarding her injuries. She said her husband had hit her, but also testified that wasn’t something he’d do. Prosecutors decided against calling her as a witness in the second trial.
David again maintained that his wife’s injuries were the result of falls she suffered on their boat and the product of an unspecified neurological ailment. The defense also argued that she and her husband were destitute and forced to live in squalor.
That opened the door for prosecutors to seek the Davids’ bank records, which showed they actually had a monthly income of about $2,100. Records also showed that Victor David was making cash withdrawals in other Puget Sound-area cities at the same time his wife was in the boat in Everett.
Prosecutors argued the evidence suggested Victor David was living elsewhere and merely warehousing his wife on the vessel.
That message resonated with jurors.
The financial information "proved that he was not a poor man and had the means to provide better care," Quinlan said.
The evidence is clear that Linda David "was absolutely under his control and care" and suffered physical and mental decline as a result, the juror added.
In August, the state agreed to pay Linda David $8.8 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the state of negligence for failing to properly oversee her care. She requires around-the-clock care at a location that is now a closely guarded secret. A court order permanently bars David from attempting contact with her.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431 or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
