By Scott North
Herald Writer
An Everett man was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday for abusing his wife, a woman who died in December after a half-dozen years of being beaten, belittled and driven to seeking solace in a bottle.
Jay Robert Smith, 35, could have faced as little as three months behind bars after pleading guilty to second-degree assault.
But Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry said a stiffer sentence was justified because of evidence the man had subjected Annette Smith, 32, to "almost daily abuse."
The 18-month sentence was triple the amount of time Jay Smith would have received under a plea agreement negotiated earlier this year, but still far less than the 10-year maximum punishment allowed under the law.
The defendant’s attorney, Lorne Grier, said he was pleased with the outcome. Jay Smith said nothing before being led away to prison.
In one of the ironies of the case, it was Annette Smith’s death that drove prosecutors into cutting a deal.
The defendant was charged with assault after he slammed his wife into a wall in September. She wound up in a coma, with blood pooling on her brain. The woman survived surgery and recovered enough to be released from the hospital. But not long after, she fell while walking her dog in Lynnwood, reinjured her brain and again lapsed into a coma.
Annette Smith died on Christmas Eve while her husband was still in jail awaiting trial. The woman’s medical condition was complicated by advanced cirrhosis of the liver, the result of drinking up to a half-gallon of wine daily.
The alcoholism was connected to the abuse. Annette Smith told nurses that she drank so much because she needed to be "numb," according to court papers.
Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern told the judge Friday that although evidence existed to connect Annette Smith’s death in December to the September head injury, he was convinced there would be "a lot of sand in the foundation" of any homicide case he could have filed.
Moreover, Annette Smith’s death made it almost impossible to prove her husband was responsible for the September assault because there were no witnesses except the victim.
Castleberry spent all day Thursday listening to testimony about the drinking, fighting and abuse that defined life in the Smith household. The judge scheduled the hearing because he wanted to know if evidence supported stiffer punishment than the six-month recommended jail term the defendant had negotiated.
Castleberry noted that Jay Smith had two arrests and one conviction for beating the woman with a baseball bat at their former home on Camano Island. He also took note how the man’s own children testified about witnessing their stepmother’s mistreatment.
The judge read from a report prepared in 1997 by an Island County sheriff’s deputy, who wrote "in 7 1/2years of law enforcement I have never seen a woman who was so obviously frightened by her husband. Mrs. Smith appears to be completely spiritually broken and has apparently resigned herself to a life of abuse and dominance by her husband."
Annette Smith was born in Sweden and was just 7 months old when her mother was killed in a car accident. She went to live with her grandmother, Loreene Eblen, who raised the child as her own daughter. The family moved to the United States when she was 9, and Annette Smith grew up in south Snohomish County, graduating in 1987 from Lynnwood High School.
Eblen told the judge Friday that Annette Smith was a spunky, beautiful young woman who believed in marriage and loved children. Annette Smith stayed with her abusive husband because she loved her stepchildren, and Jay Smith used that love to keep her under his control, Eblen said.
"I’ve been hearing so many things that I didn’t know happened," she said.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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