SLEEPWALKING MURDER TRIAL
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PHOENIX (Court TV) — Choking back tears, Scott Falater told an Arizona jury Wednesday that he loved his wife of 20 years and never would have consciously murdered her.

Falater is on trial and could face the death penalty for allegedly murdering his wife, Yarmila, on January 16, 1997. Falater stabbed his wife 44 times at their home, dragged her into their pool and then held her head under water.

The defense does not deny that Falater killed his wife, but insists that he did not commit murder because he was sleepwalking at the time. However, prosecutors doubt that theory and claim that Falater's actions — such as changing his bloody clothes and placing them in the trunk of his car — suggest that he was not sleepwalking at all during the attack.

But Falater testified that he does not remember anything from the attack. He insisted he did not plan his wife's death and that he could not have purposely murdered her so horribly.

"There's no way I could do that, not intentionally," Falater said. "I loved her."

Falater described how he met Yarmila in high school and tried to tell jurors how much he adored her. Denying suggestions that he may have been unfaithful to his wife, Falater said Yarmila was the only woman he dated and every wanted. At times, Falater said, he still could not believe that his wife was dead.

"Some people talk about their spouse as their right arm," Falater said between sobs. "She was like both my arms and my legs, half my head and all of my heart. ... I don't know what I'm going to do without her. She was virtually all of my emotional life."

However, Falater did admit that his electrical engineering career put a strain on their marriage. Because of his demanding job, Falater said he had to move his family from Chicago to Florida and Minneapolis before finally settling in Phoenix. There, Falater said, he promised an unhappy Yarmila that they would never move again.

"Our marriage got better and better and was better than ever at the time of her death," Falater said.

Although Falater may have convinced a jury that he loved his wife and did not have a motive to kill her, he still must overcome his actions during his alleged sleepwalking episode. Defense sleepwalking experts such as Dr. Roger Broughton and Dr. Janet Tatman have both testified during the three-week trial that habitual sleepwalkers like Falater can perform complex tasks during their spells. Yarmila, the defense believes, was killed when she interrupted a sleepwalking Falater while he was trying to fix a pool water pump with a hunting knife.

Broughton and Tatman have said it is not unusual for a sleepwalker to lash out violently against those who interfere in their tasks. But even Falater's own experts conceded that his 45-minute episode on the night of the murder was unusually long. Most sleepwalking spells, they said, last 10-to-20 minutes.

Falater may also have to answer allegations that he discussed a similar sleepwalking murder case with a colleague weeks before his wife's death. In that 1987 case, a Canadian jury acquitted the defendant of murder.

Falater's returns to the stand Thursday for more testimony.

— Bryan Robinson