Judge gives maximum sentence for abuse of wife, which left her crippled and in need of 24-hour care.

By Scott North

Herald Writer

Victor David talked Friday.

For roughly 30 minutes, he stood shackled in a Snohomish County courtroom, insisting he was the victim of a conspiracy that culminated in May with him being found guilty of abusing his wife for years on a filthy sailboat.

"I am an innocent man that has been wrongly convicted," David, 61, insisted. "… There is no way at any time I harmed my wife."

But Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne said the evidence was clear the former Marysville man was responsible for years-long abuse that left his 52-year-old wife Linda David blind, brain-damaged and unable to walk or care for herself.

Wynne sentenced David to 10 years in prison, the maximum punishment under state law. But the judge said even that was not "proportional" to the crime.

"Linda David will never recover and live normally again," Wynne said. Not only did David beat his wife while positioning himself as her caregiver, "he didn’t even keep her clean," the judge said.

David’s second-degree assault conviction came after two trials, the first which ended with a majority of jurors convinced he likely had assaulted his wife, but still unwilling to convict.

David’s second-degree assault sentence is the longest imposed in the county for someone with his limited criminal history since the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission began keeping records in the mid-1980s. The only person even close was a woman sentenced in 1992 to 8 1/2 years in prison for battering 12-year-old Matthew Parsons into a coma. The child died five years later.

Linda David needs 24-hour care in a nursing home, is disfigured and cannot even experience the simple pleasure of drinking a cool glass of water because of swallowing problems, her guardian, Lynne Fulp of Partners in Care, said in court papers.

Linda David, who is divorcing her husband, wasn’t in the courtroom Friday, but Fulp was. "I feel as good as you can possibly feel about the sentence," she said, adding that she only wished that it could be longer.

David and his wife lived at waterfront locations from Tacoma to Everett on a dilapidated sailboat they shared with up to seven German shepherd dogs. The defendant told people that his wife suffered from multiple sclerosis, and he collected up to $500 a month from the state as her caregiver.

Linda David was removed from the boat in 1997 after a state social worker went to a marina at the mouth of the Snohomish River in Everett looking for the couple. At the time, state officials thought the woman may have been dead and that Victor David was fraudulently collecting the money.

Instead, medical experts testified that evidence suggested Victor David had rained "hundreds" of blows on his wife’s face, leaving her with a flattened nose, eyebrows thickened with scar tissue and her ears cauliflowered.

Victor David was arrested and charged in May 1999. He insisted that he was the victim of a government conspiracy that had targeted him because he was running his own investigation into what he claimed was state-sponsored drug trafficking.

In court Friday, David renewed those allegations, using his opportunity to address the judge to deliver a rambling soliloquy in which he complained about everything from his treatment in jail to the state’s decision to pay his wife $8.8 million to settle a lawsuit alleging negligence by state social workers.

David talked about life on the boat with his dogs, his frustration with how his case was handled in court, and troubles he had with county corrections officers, which he said left him feeling "like a trained goat."

He also blasted deputy prosecutor Mark Roe, who assisted in David’s second trial. It was Roe’s idea to go after financial records that suggested David not only had enough money to live somewhere other than a sailboat, but also indicated that he had abandoned her for days at a time.

While saying Roe would "probably be an excellent dinner guest," David also claimed the prosecutor "must have failed his math classes" because the Davids never had enough money.

He also railed against deputy prosecutor Kathy Webber, who led the two-year legal fight toward his conviction, accusing her of filing charges based on "pure invention."

David’s attorney, Bryan Hershman of Tacoma, urged Wynne to ignore the attention the case received and sentence his client to the standard punishment for somebody with his criminal history, six months to a year in jail. He also urged Wynne to show mercy, pointing to evidence from early in the case suggesting David has mental problems.

Questions about Victor David’s mental health could have figured into the defense, and "but for the desires of this man, would have been a trial strategy," Hershman said, gesturing at his client.

As he was led from court, David shouted toward reporters about a plan he has to raise money by selling stock, an effort he hopes will finance a legal battle to reunite with his wife. The defendant is barred by court order from having any contact with her.

You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431

or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.