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Deliberations begin in McFarland trial

Jurors go home after closing arguments, will return Wednesday morning

SILVERTON – Closing arguments are over, and the jury is deliberating in the trial of Michael McFarland, who is accused of manslaughter in connection with the death of his wife, Jessica McFarland, 32, at their Silverton home last summer.

The trial began April 14 in the San Juan County Courthouse.

After District Judge Greg Lyman administered the jurors’ oath, they solemnly left the courtroom in front of about 50 people in the gallery.

Sixth Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg and Michael McFarland’s defense attorney, Joel Fry, thanked jurors who, during the last six days, studied hundreds of gruesome photographs of the crime scene and of Jessica’s autopsy, watched as the prosecution used the McFarlands’ entire front door as evidence and heard hours of testimony from expert witnesses about the physics of blood spatter, the biology of arterial wounds and the chemistry of glass.

Attorneys presented their best cases in closing.

Risberg told the jury that Jessica McFarland, “died an ugly death – you saw all that, a 32-year-old mother of two children, a wife, a daughter, a co-worker, a friend. She was one of us. She was human.”

Risberg said the physical evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that Michael McFarland threw a broken mug at his wife, killing her.

Risberg emphasized that Michael didn’t intend to kill his wife. But, he said, Michael himself admitted to law enforcement that he had intended “to hurt her.”

Risberg said anything is “possible,” but based on the physical evidence collected from the crime scene and Jessica’s autopsy, there is no reasonable doubt that Jessica’s death was anything but a homicide, and the defense’s contention – that Jessica somehow inflicted the wounds on herself – is scientifically suspect.

Risberg said Michael McFarland “isn’t charged with tampering with evidence, being a bad husband or making poor decisions after he threw the mug at her. He’s charged with manslaughter.

“There were only two people in the house. One is dead. The mug was thrown. ... She did not throw the mug at herself,” he said.

In his closing arguments, Fry again lambasted the testimony of Ladonna Jaramillo, the neighbor who called 911 when Michael brought her into the house where his wife lay without a pulse and covered in blood. Fry told the jury that Jaramillo’s statements to law enforcement – specifically, her telling investigators that Michael told her that he’d thrown a bottle at Jessica, and it had hit her in the neck – “took law enforcement down the wrong path.”

Fry said Jaramillo’s recollections are deeply flawed – understandably so, given her trauma – but they also create reasonable doubt.

“If McFarland had thrown a mug at Jessica, if he knew he’d killed his wife, why would he have begged law enforcement four separate times to take his fingerprints?” Fry said.

Because of Jaramillo’s misattributions and investigators’ initial belief of them, Fry said law enforcement’s investigation of Jessica’s death had been prejudiced from the outset. He said at every stage since police arrested Michael last year, the district attorney’s theory had evolved ineffectively as physical evidence and the state’s own expert witnesses contradicted its early theories of the crime.

“The DA is scrambling. They’re flying by the seat of their pants,” Fry said.

Fry said the district attorney can prove it’s possible that Michael killed Jessica, but “‘possible’ does not meet the burden of proof in a manslaughter case.”

Fry also criticized investigators for “sloppy police work.” He said law enforcement failed to get fingerprints from the mug that experts say killed Jessica. Given that, he said, Risberg did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Michael even touched the mug, let alone killed her.

cmcallister@durangoherald.com.

An earlier version of this story included an incorrect name for District Court Judge Greg Lyman.

Apr 23, 2015
Michael McFarland convicted in Silverton manslaughter trial


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