Arizona woman convicted of first-degree murder for fatally beating husband with hammer

PHOENIX – A jury has found an Arizona woman guilty of first-degree murder for fatally bludgeoning her husband with a hammer as he lay asleep in bed.

The verdict handed down Tuesday against Marissa Devault in her husband’s 2009 death sets the stage for prosecutors to urge jurors to sentence her to death.

Prosecutors say Devault killed her husband, Dale Harrell, in a failed bid to collect on a life insurance policy to repay about $300,000 in loans from her boyfriend.

Devault says she killed her husband in self-defence and told investigators he had physically and sexually abused her in the past.

Harrell died nearly a month after the January 2009 attack from complications related to his head injuries.

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