Marissa DeVault penalty phase: Jury to resume deliberations Monday

A jury will resume deliberations Monday in the penalty phase of a Gilbert woman convicted of beating her husband to death with a hammer.

The Maricopa County Superior Court jury began deliberating in the first-degree murder case of Marissa DeVault (dehv-WAH') after hearing closing arguments Tuesday.

The jury is deciding whether to imprison her for life or impose a death sentence.

Earlier this month, the same jury found the 36-year-old woman guilty of first-degree murder for killing Dale Harrell, 34, in January 2009. She claimed her husband had raped her and choked her, forcing her to act in self-defense.

But prosecutors convinced the jury that DeVault caved in Harrell's head as he slept in the bedroom of their Gilbert house. They claimed she did it to collect insurance money — although when it came time for the jury to determine whether there were aggravating factors to the crime that merited a death sentence, the jury balked at saying that DeVault killed Harrell for money. Instead, they agreed that the killing was excessively cruel.

For the last week, attorneys have called witnesses and argued as to whether there are mitigating factors that could turn jurors away from a death verdict.

And on Tuesday, in his closing statement, DeVault's lead attorney, Alan Tavassoli, listed 15 mitigating factors. Among them: that DeVault suffered domestic violence and abuse at the hands of her husband and her mother; that she had been sexually abused at a young age, which led her to prostitution and being a stripper in her adulthood; that she had no prior criminal history; and that she showed genuine remorse.

Lead prosecutor Eric Basta countered by expressing his doubt that DeVault was controlled by Harrell — or by her sugar-daddy lover, Allen Flores, who was granted partial immunity from possession of child pornography in exchange for testimony against DeVault.

Basta doubted the damning testimony by DeVault's three children, who told the jury they had seen their father beat their mother.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.