GILBERT

Gilbert hammer-killing case: Marissa Devault appeals to jury

Michael Kiefer
The Republic | azcentral.com
Marissa DeVault

On Thursday, a tearful Marissa DeVault addressed the jury that will sentence her to life or to death for murdering her husband with a claw hammer in 2009.

Timeline:Marissa DeVault case

She tapped her hands anxiously on the podium, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and then said, "I don't even know where to start."

In fact, the trial, which began Feb.6, is now close to an end.

DeVault has already been found guilty of first-degree murder for killing her husband, Dale Harrell, 34. The jury has determined that the murder was especially cruel. There is one witness left to testify, a psychologist called by the prosecution to counter DeVault's claims that physical and emotional abuse drove her to murder.

By Monday or Tuesday, the jurors should begin deliberating whether DeVault, 36, will be sentenced to death or to life in prison.

DeVault spoke about the humiliation of having her dysfunctional life on display over the course of a 21/2-month trial.

The jury has heard about DeVault's history as a stripper; her infidelities; and her "sugar daddy," Allen Flores, from whom she conned more than $360,000 in two years while telling friends and family that she was the beneficiary of a trust fund. They have heard about how she asked another ex-lover to kill her husband, then took the hammer to his head herself while he slept in the bedroom of their Gilbert house.

Harrell lived for three weeks after the attack. DeVault convinced a family friend to confess to the attack, and even got Flores to edit the confession letter.

But now, it is over. On Thursday, as she spoke to the jury, DeVault cried so hard that it was often difficult to understand her. She said she accepted responsibility for her actions. She apologized to the husband she killed, to her children, even to the jury for the time they spent and the expense of the trial.

"All of them have been tainted by my actions," she said.

"I'm sorry that the repercussions are going to affect so many lives," she said. "I don't even know where to go back to if I had the chance."

It had been a week of compelling testimony.

The trial is in the "mitigation" phase, during which DeVault's defense attorneys are presenting evidence and testimony they hope will persuade the jurors to come back with a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

On Wednesday, a psychologist described the January 2009 murder as "an explosion of humiliated fury."

DeVault's three daughters, two of whom were fathered by Harrell, described beatings at the hands of both parents.

The oldest child claimed she had learned to cover the marks from her mother's beatings by watching how DeVault covered bruises from beatings at the hands of her husband.

One of the daughters described looking under the bedroom door while her parents fought and seeing her father pinning her mother to the floor and striking her with his fists.

The two younger girls read statements suggesting DeVault killed Harrell because of the abuse.

"I think my mom must have had a reason to hurt my dad," one said.

The other said, "I know that she is guilty for killing my dad, but I think she had enough with my dad breaking her bones."