SLEEPWALKING MURDER TRIAL
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PHOENIX (Court TV) — Granting the wish of the victim's children, a Phoenix judge Monday spared the life of Scott Falater, who claimed he was sleepwalking when he stabbed and drowned his wife. But Falater, who was convicted last June of first-degree murder, will not be eligible for parole.

The 44-year-old Mormon electronics engineer, who has a history of sleepwalking, admitted killing his wife but claimed that he was sleepwalking at the time and lacked the intent to kill. Falater's defense claimed that he was not consciously aware of his actions when he killed Yarmila Falater and had no reason to commit murder.

Judge Ronald Reinstein agreed that Falater acted in a "especially cruel, heinous and depraved manner," but opted not to invoke the death penalty.

During a pre-sentencing hearing last month, Falater expressed remorse over his wife's killing and asked Judge Reinstein to spare his life for his children's sake.

"Please give us the chance to rebuild what we can, to rebuild our relationship as much as we can," Falater had told the judge, according to the Arizona Republic.

Falater's teen-age children, Michael and Megan, had wept as he pleaded for mercy. Michael Falater told Judge Reinstein that he loved his father "more than anything else in the world." Megan Falater asked the judge to give her another chance to have a relationship with her father.

Falater's plea also received somewhat surprising support from Yarmila's mother — his former mother-in-law. She asked Judge Reinstein to give Falater life without parole, not death, because her grandchildren still need their father.

"I ask this request for my grandchildren, who need a living parent, even if that parent is in jail," Yarmila Klesken wrote. "Nothing that the court does will bring my daughter back from the dead. But knowing that Scott will be in jail the rest of his life would be penalty enough. I raised three children after [a] divorce, and all three children needed their father."

Prosecutor Juan Martinez has argued that Falater's murder of his wife meets the death penalty standard because the slaying was especially "heinous, cruel or depraved." Noting that Falater stabbed Yarmila 44 times, Martinez has stressed that he drowned her in the pool after noticing she was still breathing after the stab wounds. Martinez stressed that Falater left his wife to die in the pool while he returned to the house, washed blood from his hands and stashed bloody clothes into the trunk of his car.