Years of abuse led to fatal hammer attack

By Nathan Gonzalez - Mar. 6, 2010 07:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Marissa Devault said she was tired.

Tired of explaining the bruises and fractured bones, the Gilbert woman told town detectives.

Tired of the shouting matches in the bedroom away from their three children, she said.

And tired of being a sexual object for her husband, she said.

So Devault screamed, clawed, bit and fought against her husband of nine years as he allegedly choked and raped her early Jan. 14, 2009, she told a Gilbert police detective.

Walking back from the bathroom, Devault said she snapped.

She grabbed a hammer from a bedroom table near her sleeping husband, and repeatedly struck him in the head, she said.

"I said, 'You don't own me,' and I just hit and I, I hit with both hands and it - and I just kept hitting him," Devault told the detective. "I didn't mean to kill him. Really, I didn't. I hit him and I didn't mean to. It was a bloody mess. Tired. Just tired."

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge has yet to rule whether a jury will hear Devault's 300-page confession, in which she admits to killing her husband, Dale Harrell, 34, who died in the hospital three weeks after the attack left him with a shattered skull.

Deputy Public Defender Alan Tavassoli argues in court documents that Devault wasn't read her rights before being questioned about Harrell's death. He claims Devault wasn't immediately aware she was allowed an attorney before being questioned.

In January, prosecutors responded that Devault met with detectives voluntarily and was allowed restroom and cigarette breaks, and access to her cell phone during the three-hour interview.

Devault said she was pregnant the first time Harrell allegedly beat her, "one month and three days" into their marriage. He was upset she refused to take his last name for herself or her 3-year-old daughter, whom he planned to adopt, she said.

Harrell pinned and struck her in the head three times inside their Tempe home, and only stopped when the toddler walked in after Devault screamed.

Five days later, she learned his repeated punches fractured her skull.

The hospital "gave me a lovely little pamphlet about domestic abuse," she said. "I did leave (Harrell). I told (him) I didn't sign up for this."

Devault moved with her daughter to her parent's Lake Havasu home. She threatened divorce, but returned a month later after he reluctantly agreed to attend counseling on the condition she carried her pregnancy to full-term.

"I wasn't going to have (my daughter) because if I was gonna, you know, be alone again, I did not need another kid," she told the detective.

Counseling sessions helped, and their relationship settled, but every three months the arguments returned, she said.

"When he regresses, then he starts getting angry and starts throwing things and starts slapping," she said. "He wasn't hurting me, he was hurting things in the house."

Devault began courses in about 2003 at DeVry University, where she was seeking a degree in accounting and project management. She was pregnant with her third child, and made a few friends, including Stanley Cook Jr.

On one occasion, classmates and Cook watched as Harrell allegedly shoved Devault so hard, her shoulder popped out of its socket, she told police. One friend popped it back into place.

Soon "Uncle" Stan, who suffers from memory loss, was living with the family in the home Harrell and Devault purchased April 2008 on the 2100 block of East Maplewood Street in Gilbert. Cook helped ease the couple's stressed marriage, even though Harrell grew increasingly jealous as she made more friends, Devault said.

In September 2008, Devault said she again visited the hospital with her eye swollen shut after Harrell slapped her.

"He's a good backhand too," she told the detective.

In December 2008, Devault said she was thrown onto their driveway and kicked "because I had bought the girls scooters. I was curled ... I was like, oh God, I'm dead."

Devault said she instructed her daughters to lock themselves in their rooms and put a movie on. She then grabbed her purse and phone and attempted to leave, but Harrell stood in front of her vehicle.

She went back into the house.

"Our discussion about it was, 'Don't ever do that to me again,' and he said 'OK,' and we started to get ready for Christmas," Devault said. "I . . told him that I was very unhappy with our lives."

A few weeks later she began training to become a Gilbert police officer, which Harrell opposed. She passed the written and physical exam and was awaiting an oral interview.

She she threatened to leave him again.

"I said I'm not doing this anymore," Devault said in recounting that conversation with the victim. "It's not that I don't love you ... It's just I don't love us."

On Jan. 14, 2008, Devault gave Harrell the papers she intended to hand her attorney to begin the divorce process. They ate dinner as a family, and eventually started talking about their marriage.

Devault told police she turned Harrell down for sex, which sparked a "little" argument. She stayed awake drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes to avoid having sex with Harrell until he was sound asleep.

After finally falling asleep, she was awoken to Harrell pinning her down, his hand constricting her airway as he had sex with her, Devault said.

"It makes it so that I can't swallow, then I - I get really ... dizzy really fast. When I can't swallow, I can't make noise either. And I can't fight," Devault said.

"He likes to do that to me sometimes," she said, adding that she fought and bit at him until losing consciousness. "He thinks it's funny. It's just a control. I don't like it. It scares the crap out of me."

Afterwards, she went to the bathroom. On the way back to bed, Harrell was asleep on his side.

Devault screamed and slammed Harrell with the hammer, she said.

"I don't know. I just didn't want him to touch me," Devault told the detective. " I just wanted him to feel every time ... he's ever touched me and I wanted him to know what it felt like."

"I really didn't think about it," she said, adding she "didn't really put any effort or thought into it."

Hearing Devault scream, Cook rushed from his room and quickly removed the hammer from her hands, she told the detective. Cook offered to take the blame so their children wouldn't lose both parents.

"He asked (Harrell) if you're all right and (Harrell) actually said, 'Bitch.' " she said. "And I pushed him off the bed."

She called 911.

Devault faces the death penalty in her husband's death. She's scheduled to stand trial in superior court Aug. 11.

As she finished her interview with detectives, Devault spoke of her three daughters.

"I don't want to spend my life in jail, and I don't want my girls not to have a mom," she said.

From: http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2010/03/05/20100305gilbert-woman-explains-hammer-death.html