TACOMA — The Pierce County prosecutor has charged a 57-year-old man with first-degree murder in his wife’s strangling death.
The prosecutor’s office said Michael Leroy Brown was arraigned Monday and held on $2 million bail.
In court papers, prosecutors say Brown walked into the bedroom where his wife was sleeping on Jan. 8 and strangled her with a belt, then called 911. Prosecutors say the man locked himself in a bathroom and cut his neck after deputies arrived. They say he told deputies he had recently lost his job and didn’t want his wife to suffer the consequences. The man reportedly also said he had attempted suicide shortly after Christmas.
