TACOMA — A Pierce County judge has sentenced a man to 40 years in prison for a second-degree murder conviction in the 2012 beating death of his live-in girlfriend.
After 43-year-old William Selley told the court Friday that Kathryn Southward suffered her injuries by falling repeatedly after a night of heavy drinking, Superior Court Judge Edmund Murphy imposed the sentence, which was more than twice the high end of the standard range.
The News Tribune reported that prosecutors requested the exceptional sentence after jurors earlier found Southward’s death was part of a pattern of abuse. That aggravating factor allowed the prosecution to seek a sentence higher than the standard range.
Jurors believed the prosecution’s assertions that Selley beat his 29-year-old girlfriend savagely after a night out drinking and then waited three days before summoning help. Southward died after an eight-day hospital stay.
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