EVERETT — An Everett man convicted of beating his wife with a barbell last year maintained his innocence Wednesday as he was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.
Jeffery Marble said that he isn’t a violent person and he’s never struck his wife. Marble, 49, maintained that he doesn’t know what happened to his wife on June 1, 2009, inside their Everett home.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight said there are a lot of unanswered questions about the incident but one thing is clear — Marble’s wife was assaulted. She didn’t inflict the injuries on herself and they weren’t caused by a fall, Knight said.
The jury concluded Marble was responsible, the judge said.
“We may never know why,” Knight said.
That’s not the only mystery, the judge acknowledged. It’s still unknown if Marble was making ricin, a deadly toxin, and poisoning his wife, Knight said.
The judge didn’t allow jurors to hear testimony about the ricin. Knight concluded that any testimony about the ricin would have been too prejudicial to the defendant, who was on trial for an assault.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Valerie Shapiro asked for the high-end sentence. That would have been about a year more than Knight gave Marble.
Shapiro told the judge that Marble intended to end his wife’s life.
The victim told jurors she was attacked as she was leaving to go to the bank to sort out the family’s deteriorating financial situation.
Marble had hidden from her that the family’s home was in foreclosure.
The woman said she was first struck in the head with a pink barbell. More blows followed.
She said her husband smashed her head against a slate floor and shoved her body into a metal railing. She eventually convinced him to let her go to the bathroom.
The attack ended when the couple’s 16-year-old son returned home from school. The teen and his mother fled the house.
Marble had no prior criminal history. His mother told the judge that her son “has never, ever given us any problems.”
Marble plans to appeal his conviction.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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