Hammer slaying trial gets underway in Arizona

2/6/2014

PHOENIX — An Arizona woman went on trial today on charges that she bludgeoned her husband to death with a hammer in what prosecutors said was an attempt to obtain an insurance settlement to pay a nearly $300,000 loan from her boyfriend.

Prosecutor Michelle Arino said 36-year-old Marissa Suzanne Devault needed quick money to get out of her deep financial hole. “The defendant likes money, and she likes easy money,” Arino said during opening statements.

But one of Devault’s attorneys raised questions about the credibility of his client’s boyfriend, who was given an immunity agreement on child pornography allegations in exchange for his testimony.

Authorities say Devault fatally wounded Dale Harrell by bludgeoning him over the head with a hammer as he slept in their suburban Phoenix home in January 2009. Harrell, 34, suffered multiple skull fractures and died at a hospice nearly a month after the attack of complications from his head injuries.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Devault.

Devault claims she killed her husband in self-defense and told investigators that he had physically and sexually abused her in the past. But prosecutors contend that the attack on Harrell was premeditated and say Devault has given conflicting accounts of her husband’s death. They also say the people Devault alleged were witnesses to the abuse didn’t back up her claims.

Alan Tavassoli, one of Devault’s attorneys, said prosecutors are giving a pass to his client’s boyfriend, businessman Allen Flores, even after he failed to report to police that Devault had allegedly claimed three days before the hammer attack that her husband had been killed in a tire-iron beating. “He (Flores) is free and clear for this trial,” Tavassoli said.

At first, Devault told investigators that Harrell had attacked her while she was asleep and choked her until she was unconscious. She told police that when she came to, she saw another man who lived at their Gilbert home beating Harrell with a hammer.

But authorities say bloodstain patterns showed Harrell was alone in the bed at the time of the attack and that bloodstains on Devault’s clothes were consistent with a person swinging an object repeatedly over her head.

Investigators say Devault later confessed, saying she attacked her sleeping husband in a rage after he had sexually assaulted her.

Police say they discovered Devault had been dating another man, Flores, for more than two years. In a search of Flores’ computer, police say they found a journal that appeared to be written from his perspective and indicated that he had given Devault about $7,000 which she used to hire a hit man, according to court records.

The prosecution says Arino needed to repay a $294,000 loan from her boyfriend.

Authorities say child pornography also was found on Flores’ computer. County prosecutors granted Flores immunity on that allegation in exchange for his testimony in the murder case. Without such an agreement, Flores was expected to invoke his right against self-incrimination.

Prosecutors say the immunity agreement doesn’t prevent authorities from filing pornography charges against Flores. Instead, they say the agreement bars authorities from using any statement that Flores makes during the murder trial in a pornography case.