By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

COLUMBUS, Kan. — A Cherokee County jury on Thursday found Robert Jarman guilty of second-degree murder in the 2007 shooting death of his wife, Suzanne Jarman.

Robert and Suzanne Jarman’s children, Carly and Tyler, and other members of the family wept openly in court when the verdict was announced. Suzanne Jarman was 42 when she died on Aug. 22, 2007.

Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 15. Jarman faces a potential of 12 1/4 to 13 3/4 years in prison. Jarman’s attorney, Sam Marsh, said he would file motions for a judgment of acquittal and for a new trial.

Jurors began deliberating at 10:48 a.m. after closing arguments. The jury returned its verdict at 1:03 p.m. The time included a break for lunch.

Jarman, 46, was found guilty of intentional second-degree murder. Jury instructions also gave jurors the options of finding him guilty of reckless second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, or finding him innocent.

The defendant didn’t testify during the trial, which started Monday.

Expert testimony

In his closing remarks, Barry Disney, assistant Kansas attorney general, said undisputed facts in the case included that Suzanne Jarman was killed by a shotgun blast and that Robert Jarman was the shooter.

He said prosecution experts determined that Suzanne Jarman was facing toward a gun safe, away from her husband, and that the entire shotgun blast struck the back of her head. He said the expert witnesses also testified that the gun was parallel to the floor, in the traditional firing position, when it was fired. Also, the gun couldn’t accidentally discharge, he said.

In a recording of his 911 call played during the trial, a frantic Robert Jarman was heard telling the dispatcher that he was handing his wife a shotgun when cleaning out a gun safe, and that it discharged and hit her.

The expert witnesses who testified Tuesday were forensic pathologist Erik Mitchell, Kansas Bureau of Investigation blood pattern specialist Michael Van Stratton, and KBI gun expert David Wright.

Disney told jurors that Jarman’s act was intentional.

“Did he mean to pull the trigger?” Disney said. “If he meant to pull the trigger, then he meant to kill her.”

Included in the jury instructions was that “voluntary intoxication may be a defense to intentional second-degree murder, where evidence indicates that such intoxication impaired a defendant’s mental faculties to the extent that he was incapable of forming the necessary intent to kill Suzanne Jarman.”

Marsh on Wednesday called to the witness stand Jarman’s psychiatrist, William Klontz, who said the prescription drugs Jarman was taking represented “a potent cocktail” that could impair his judgment.

“These drugs could cause him to be impaired,” Disney said in his closing argument. “But there was no evidence that he was.”

‘Accidents happen’

Marsh began his closing remarks with a quote he attributed to Harry Whittington.

“Accidents do and will happen,” Marsh said Whittington said after then-Vice President Dick Cheney shot him in the face with a shotgun.

“The state wants you to believe that this is the act of a cold-blooded killer who stares down the barrel of a gun and shatters the head of his wife, his soul mate for 20-some years,” Marsh said.

He said the state’s experts didn’t examine blood patterns on Robert Jarman’s shirt, though they examined his jeans. The blood expert also couldn’t explain the presence of one bloodstain on the gun, he said. He said several witnesses testified about the potential for the ceiling fan to spread blood randomly, but the state’s blood expert dismissed the idea.

Marsh said Jarman’s emotions on the night his wife died weren’t an act.

“There’s terror in his voice” during the 911 call, Marsh said. “You heard it.”

Responding after Marsh, Disney said that Marsh shouldn’t compare the situation to the Cheney incident.

“Dick Cheney probably should have been charged,” Disney said. “He shot a guy in the head.”

Gravity and physics

Speaking with reporters outside the courtroom, both attorneys said the expert witnesses likely were pivotal in the jury’s decision.

Disney said the analysis of the bloodstains on the gun was the key piece of evidence.

“When you have evidence established by the laws of gravity and the laws of physics, it’s hard to argue about that,” he said.

Marsh said the experts were all the prosecution had.

“It had to hinge on the state employees from Topeka,” he said. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is the investigative agency of the Kansas attorney general’s office.

Both also commented on the emotional toll of the trial on Carly and Tyler Jarman.

“It’s not lost on us that there are two children who dearly love their father and wanted this to be an accident,” Disney said.

“Carly and Tyler are devastated,” Marsh said. “I know from their reaction in the courtroom.”

Marsh said the situation has ripped the family apart.





Electronic monitoring



Cherokee County District Judge Kent Lynch, while rejecting a prosecution request that Robert Jarman be taken into custody immediately, agreed to require electronic monitoring for him until his sentencing.