Unusual defense sought in woman’s attempted murder trial

We all the know the saying: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

But should it get you off for shooting somebody?

That’s the question before a Clark County judge, who must decide whether to allow a defense attorney to pursue a rare angle: He says his client, Sheryl J. Martin, was so emotionally distraught about her husband’s affair that she couldn’t form the legal intent to shoot him.

Martin, 54, of Ridgefield, is charged with first-degree attempted murder for shooting her spouse, Eddie E. Martin, on Sept. 8, 2007. She shot him four times with a double-barreled shotgun after he told her he’d been cheating on her and wanted to end their 30-year marriage. He was hospitalized for several days.

Martin, a loan processor when she was arrested, is out on $100,000 bail.

At the end of the two-day hearing today, Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson will decide whether to allow defense attorney David McDonald to present the “betrayal trauma theory” to jurors.

Martin’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 18.

The issue is whether the betrayal trauma theory has been generally accepted by the scientific community and is relevant to Martin’s case.

The theory first emerged in the early 1990s as a way to explain how child sex abuse victims repressed memories of abuse, attorneys said. The idea focused on victims whose abusers were close relatives and their feeling of being violated by a person of trust.

Jennifer Freyd, a University of Oregon psychology professor and leading expert on the theory, testified how betrayal trauma has since evolved to include adults who are victims of physical and emotional abuse as well as infidelity. Some victims of betrayal suffer memory loss, though there’s no evidence of that in Martin’s case.

Freyd said Martin had suffered emotional abuse leading up to her husband’s admission of the affair, and that the heartbreak caused her to dissociate from reality. Therefore, she couldn’t form the intent to try to kill him, by Freyd’s theory.

Heartache doesn’t give you license to shoot someone, nor does it mean you can’t form intent, said Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Fairgrieve. He called two witnesses, including a Western State Hospital psychologist, to testify Wednesday about how betrayal trauma is relatively unknown in the psychology community. It’s also not listed in the DSM-IV, a guidebook psychologists use in diagnosing patients.

“The most glaring error is that there is no prior record of this defense being raised in any courtroom in the United States,” Fairgrieve said. The only exception, he added, is that it was once used in federal court to explain why a sexual assault victim delayed reporting the incident.

Most psychologists aware of the theory are among a close-knit group who focus on trauma behavior or are students of Freyd, he said.

Marilyn Ronnei, a Western State Hospital psychologist, said she consulted numerous colleagues at the state hospital and none of them had heard of the theory. She evaluated Martin last year and diagnosed the woman with alcohol abuse, marijuana drug abuse and depression. While Ronnei said Martin seemed detached from the incident, Ronnei thought she was clearly aware of the shooting.

“She did at times say things like, ‘This doesn’t seem real,’” Ronnei said. “However, she had intact reasoning and goal-directed behavior.”

To wrap up the hearing, attorney McDonald plans to call a Seattle forensic psychologist to the stand today. It is unknown whether Johnson will make a ruling today or in a written opinion on a later date.

Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.