Marissa Devault

Other details

Marissa Devault (36) was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2009 slaying of Dale Harrell.

The case involved a hammer attack at the couple’s home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert.

Devault’s trial included testimony about plots to hire a hit man and evidence related to her former boyfriend, Allen Flores, including testimony that he was given an immunity agreement on child-pornography allegations in exchange for his testimony. Child pornography was found on Flores’ computer during a search connected to the murder investigation.

The offence

Devault beat her husband to death with a hammer.

Dale Harrell (34) suffered multiple skull fractures in the attack at the couple’s home in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert.

Harrell did not die immediately. He died nearly a month later at a hospice of complications from his head injuries.

In testimony, Harrell was described as being weakened by a stroke and two heart attacks when he died of a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot to the lungs, three weeks after the attack, according to testimony from a medical examiner.

Devault described the incident as involving abuse and a self-defence claim. She told investigators that Harrell physically and sexually abused her in the past and that she killed him in self-defense.

Devault told investigators that Harrell attacked her as she slept and choked her until she was unconscious. She also told police that when she woke up, she saw another man who lived at their home beating Harrell with a hammer.

Authorities disputed Devault’s account and said blood spatter 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.

Devault later confessed to attacking her husband, saying she pummeled him in a rage as he slept after he sexually assaulted her.

Prosecut