SLEEPWALKING MURDER TRIAL
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PHOENIX (Court TV) —Entrusting his fate in God — and hopefully an open-minded jury &151; Scott Falater ended his two-and-half days of testimony Friday by saying that his wife's death will always haunt him.

"Personally, it is something that is going to haunt me forever," Falater said. "I don't know that I'll ever get over that."

Falater is on trial 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, and therefore lacked the intent to kill. Yarmila, the defense believes, was killed when she tried to awaken a sleepwalking Falater while he was trying to fix a pool water pump with a hunting knife.

However, prosecutors doubt the sleepwalking 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. They insist Falater's fatal attack on his wife was premeditated.

In Arizona, jurors are allowed to submit written questions to witnesses. One juror seemed to focus on defense claims that Falater was extremely sleep-deprived on the night of the incident because of stress at his job. This juror asked the defendant whether he considered himself a perfectionist. On the other hand, the question may have alluded to prosecution suggestions that marriage tension drove Falater to kill his wife.

"If I were to demand perfection in everyone, I'd be a pretty lonely guy," Falater said. "People are their own people. You have to accept that."

After Falater's testimony ended, prosecutors called Jacqueline Haek, a sleep technician who was involved in a study of Falater's sleep habits. Haek was called to undermine the previous testimony of defense expert, Dr. Janet Tatman, whom prosecutors accused of falsifying evidence.

Doctors conducted a four-night study of Falater's sleep habits in November 1997 to discover how often he entered the deep sleep associated with sleepwalking. Through the testimony of his relatives, the defense has claimed that Falater has been a habitual sleepwalker since his teens.

Haek claimed that Tatman asked her to change data because the study showed that Falater did not enter a deep sleep during the four nights. However, Haek said she refused.

"I didn't feel comfortable changing the data," Haek said. "This is a legal document going to court, and I told [the doctor] I didn't feel comfortable changing it in the middle of the study."

Both sides could rest their cases next week. If convicted of premeditated murder, Falater could face the death penalty.

— Bryan Robinson