By Scott North
Herald Writer
An Everett man pleaded guilty to assault Thursday for slamming his wife into a wall so hard she wound up in a coma, with blood pooling on her brain.
Jay Robert Smith, 35, admitted he committed second-degree assault when he intentionally pushed his wife, Annette Smith, 32, "very hard" into a wall on Sept. 15.
During a brief hearing before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry, the defendant was ordered to show up for sentencing July 11, and to have no contact with the victim.
That’s unlikely.
Annette Smith has been dead since December.
The woman survived surgery for her September injuries and recovered enough to be released from the hospital. But not long after, she apparently suffered more trauma to her head and lapsed into a coma.
Annette Smith died on Christmas Eve. Her husband was in jail at the time.
Officials explored whether the death could be linked to the September assault. But based on what they learned from medical experts, homicide likely could not have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, deputy prosecutor Paul Stern said.
"The facts surrounding her death are both tragic on a human level and unfortunately problematic from an evidentiary level," he said.
Jay Smith was originally charged in October with two counts of second-degree assault. Prosecutors allege the man engaged in a years-long pattern of abusing his wife, leading to arrests and prosecutions for acts of domestic violence.
Smith and his wife had been married nearly six years. He had two arrests and one conviction for beating the woman with a baseball bat at their former home on Camano Island, according to court papers.
The couple were living in Everett in September when she was taken to an area hospital with bleeding inside her head. Surgery was required to drain the blood and release pressure on her brain.
Complicating the case was the woman’s abuse of alcohol, which left her with substantial liver disease, according to court papers.
The woman told a nurse, "I drink too much so I get numb," prosecutors said.
Under state sentencing guidelines, Smith faces three to nine months in prison for the assault. The maximum punishment is 10 years in prison.
Lawyers on Thursday didn’t tell the judge that Annette Smith had died.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431
or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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