He tried to help; she killed him — and got 22 years in prison

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 1, 2020

EVERETT — Her husband said a taxi was on its way, according to charging documents. They were going to a provider to talk about her mental health.

By then, Robin Nolcini, 51, had already decided she was going to kill her husband Mark Giless. She bought a knife for the occasion, and had it hidden in her sleeve for hours that day in November 2018.

Police found Giless’ body hours later. He was 53.

Superior Court Judge Janice Ellis sentenced Nolcini to 22 years in prison Monday, on the low end of state guidelines. She pleaded guilty to premeditated first-degree murder in December.

According to her attorney, Nolcini claimed her husband was going to be arrested and believed he was going to die in jail.

The fears were unfounded, public defender Robert O’Neal wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

“She did not appreciate how paranoid and out-of-balance her mental state had become,” O’Neal wrote.

On Nov. 12, 2018, Nolcini called 911 herself.

“It’s bad,” she reportedly told a dispatcher. “I’ll tell them when they get here.”

When officers got to her apartment in the 2500 block of Grand Avenue, the door was open. They found Giless’ body on the floor in the hallway. Nearby was a hunting knife with blood on it.

Nolcini told police she had recurring thoughts of killing her husband, because “it was the only way to keep him safe,” charging documents say. The couple had knives in the home, but she reported that she went to Walmart to buy a bigger one, to make sure it would kill him.

Shortly after Giless told her a taxicab was coming, she stabbed him in the neck as he sat in a recliner. He got up, but quickly fell down, prosecutors wrote. Nolcini ran.

A psychologist diagnosed Nolcini with borderline personality disorder and severe cannabis use disorder. She thought her husband was being investigated for a hit and run, an incident police denied existed, O’Neal wrote.

“As perverse as it sounds, her actions were motivated not by hatred or anger at her husband, but out of a paranoid and delusional belief that this was somehow going to prevent a more agonizing fate for him in the future,” O’Neal wrote.

After being placed on medication, Nolcini “has come to understand the terrible mistake she made,” O’Neal wrote.

Family wrote that Giless was taken from them much too soon.

“I am missing him today & every day,” his sister wrote in a statement to the court. “No more laughs, Christmas Eve celebrations, no more hugs, no more smiles with Mark. No amount of love, caring or wishes can bring him back.”

Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.