Kevin West hears he is guilty of first-degree murder in his wife”s death in Washington state (Law&Crime).
A firefighter, entangled in a dangerous affair, strangled his wife to death, initially attempting to attribute her death to a seizure. This was part of a failed scheme to abandon her for his lover, prosecutors revealed.
Kevin West, 52, was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury on Tuesday for the killing of his 48-year-old wife, Marcelle “Marcy” West, in Washington state. In the early hours of January 8, 2024, West dialed 911, claiming his wife was experiencing a “seizure.”
Responders from the Washougal Police Department, along with West’s colleagues from the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, arrived at 4:27 a.m. Her body was initially released to a funeral home since the first autopsy did not provide clear results.
In the days following the incident, multiple individuals contacted the authorities expressing concerns about the couple’s relationship, specifically pointing out West’s affair. They suspected Marcelle West’s death was not due to natural causes.
A second autopsy revealed trauma to her neck, leading deputies to determine she died from asphyxia combined with blunt neck trauma. The death was classified as a homicide.
Police passed the case to their Clark County Sheriff’s Office counterparts in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Detectives uncovered a marriage on the rocks along with financial troubles. They also discovered incriminating text messages on Kevin West’s phone, including some he sent to his mistress’s mother that said he planned to divorce his wife on the day of the murder.
Expressing his fixation, West had written to his lover’s mother, “I want you to know how spiritually connected we are. I absolutely ache for her, wishing tomorrow would come.”
Cops also recovered a Christmas card to his mistress tucked away in his garage.
“2024 will be our year,” he wrote. “Our story will ring in the New Year, loud for all to hear. I love you.”
But there were problems with filing for divorce. If the Wests were to separate, he would have to pay her $4,500 a month in alimony, money he didn’t have.
Kevin West took the stand in his own defense and denied killing his wife. They wed in 2002. He met his mistress, who worked at the fire station as a volunteer, about two years later and they had a monthslong affair before they lost touch. He tried to find her on social media over the years but it wasn’t until July 2023 that they reconnected. Their affair rekindled shortly thereafter.
The defendant testified in the months leading up to the death that his wife had been experiencing a growing list of health problems, including migraines. He claimed that on the night before her demise, the two had a pleasant evening watching movies and eating Chinese food before they went to bed around 11 p.m.
His Apple Health data, however, showed he was far more active than he claimed. It said he took some 1,000 steps in bursts until 4 a.m.
Senior prosecutor Jessica E. Smith said the motive for the murder was “glaringly obvious.”
“To call it an affair is a little bit of an understatement — it was an obsession,” Smith said during closing arguments.
The jury only took about two hours to come back with a guilty verdict. After the verdict was read, Kevin West collapsed into his sister’s arms in tears.
He’s set to be sentenced on Feb. 27.
