Hammer Case
Murder or Self Defense?
The Case
Marissa Devault's husband Dale Harrell was allegedly attacked with a hammer in early 2009, he survived the attack but died days later in hospice. Marissa has numerous varying stories on what actually happened, most centered around the fact that she acted in self defense against her husband after he attacked her though no signs of struggle exist. Prosecutors have testimonial evidence that points to this being a planned attack and that Devault even tried to hire a hitman to complete the murder. Devault has failed to come up with a story that matches the blood spatter evidence and the testimonial evidence against her
Blood Spatter Evidence
The blood spatter evidence from the video suggests that numerous blows were inflicted, with lots of medium velocity blood spatter generated by blunt force present at the scene. Also, quite a bit of castoff exists on the walls in different areas from the hammer itself, plus several places that passive bloodstains exist where the blood soaked hammer dripped on different places around the crime scene.
Castoff Bloodstains
Medium Velocity Bloodstains
Passive Bloodstains
Personal Opinion
I believe, from the evidence I was able to gather via the blood spatter evidence video and other online research, that Marissa Devault is guilty of murdering her husband. The evidence shown seems to support this she definitely didn't act in self defense if she indeed was the one wielding the hammer. The spatters are too spread out and were delivered with too much vengeance to place it on just self defense.