Wife gets life sentence for butchering husband
Michael Snyder
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/01/16/20100116orbin0116.html
by Michael Kiefer and JJ Hensley - Jan. 16, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Comparing her to one of the most notorious murderers in Arizona history,
a Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced Marjorie
Orbin to spend the rest of her life in prison for killing her husband
and dismembering his body.
Judge Arthur Anderson told Orbin, 48, that the facts of her case were
eerily similar to that of Winnie Ruth Judd, who was dubbed the "Trunk
Murderess" after being discovered with two dismembered bodies stuffed
into steamer trunks in 1931.
"What this seems to be is a revelation of your very darkest side,
ma'am," Anderson said as he prepared Orbin for her sentencing. "When
that dark side is unleashed, it's about as dark as it gets." Quantcast
Orbin said she will appeal the jury's verdict, but for victim Jay
Orbin's family, the sentencing finally brought some closure to a matter
that has dragged on for more than five years.
"We're ecstatic," said Jake Orbin, Jay's brother, who moved to Arizona
after the murder to care for Noah, the 13-year-old son left essentially
parentless and who was mentioned frequently in Friday's proceeding.
"I needed that for my brother," Jake said of the sentence.
Jay Orbin, 47, disappeared in September 2004 after returning to Phoenix
from a cross-country trip selling Native American jewelry and artwork.
Weeks later, his headless, limbless torso was found in the desert in
north Phoenix, stuffed into a 50-gallon plastic tub. The rest of his
body has never been found.
His wife was charged with his murder. Among the evidence against her was
surveillance video showing her purchasing two such plastic tubs at a
hardware store. She was charged with first-degree murder.
Her trial began in late January 2009 and detailed her history as an
exotic dancer before marrying Jay. Several of her lovers testified at
the trial.
Proceedings were delayed by accusations of prosecutorial misconduct
against the initial prosecutor, Deputy County Attorney Noel Levy, and
then by Levy's medical problems, which forced him to withdraw midcase.
Anderson threw out the allegations of misconduct. Levy was also the
prosecutor in the case of Ray Krone, whose wrongful murder conviction
was overturned after he spent 10 years on death row; and in the case of
Debra Milke, who is in federal court as a judge determines whether her
1989 confession was legally obtained. Milke has been on death row since
1991 for the murder of her 4-year-old son.
Deputy County Attorney Treena Kay stepped into the breach in April and
got a conviction in September. Two weeks later, the jury chose to
sentence Marjorie Orbin to life in prison instead of death.
It was up to Anderson to determine whether to sentence her to natural
life or to life with a chance of parole after 25 years.
The sentencing was delayed, however, because of new information from a
national TV newsmagazine story focusing on Orbin's claims that the
murder was really committed by her lover, Larry Weisberg, who was
granted immunity in exchange for testimony against her.
Orbin's attorneys, Herman Alcantar and Robyn Varcoe, asked for a new trial.
Orbin made her case against Weisberg during the trial, even though in a
January 2009 letter to The Republic, she blamed her husband's brother,
Jake, with covering up evidence and redirecting investigators toward her
because he stood to inherit Jay's estate.
Anderson denied Orbin's request for a new trial earlier this month.
realpch
I wonder how big she is. Even a limbless torso has to be pretty heavy
and unwieldy. I was watching a video about Dorothea Puente the other
night, and I really wondered how she got those bodies out of the house
and into their graves. Prior to seeing that video, I'd casually wondered
how she dug the graves, but apparently she got casual labor to do that
for her.
Peach
--
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Save some dough, save some grief:
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Poe
I think it would be fairly easy to move heavy things around, even "dead
weight", using leverage, those 2-wheeled hand trucks, etc. The trick
might be pulling in the limbs with rope or whatever before rigor mortis
so they aren't sticking out all over the place, making things overly
awkward to manage.
realpch
>
> realpch wrote:
<snip>
> > I wonder how big she is. Even a limbless torso has to be pretty heavy
> > and unwieldy. I was watching a video about Dorothea Puente the other
> > night, and I really wondered how she got those bodies out of the house
> > and into their graves. Prior to seeing that video, I'd casually wondered
> > how she dug the graves, but apparently she got casual labor to do that
> > for her.
> >
> > Peach
>
> I think it would be fairly easy to move heavy things around, even "dead
> weight", using leverage, those 2-wheeled hand trucks, etc. The trick
> might be pulling in the limbs with rope or whatever before rigor mortis
> so they aren't sticking out all over the place, making things overly
> awkward to manage.
Ok, I'm not cut out to be a serial killer! I wouldn't have thought of a
hand truck. In the back of my mind I'd be going, "Oh a handtruck would
make me really conspicuous. I'll just try lugging this heavy bin by
myself, nobody will notice me struggling with THAT."
:-D
Chocolic
"Poe" <hau...@terrible-thought.com> wrote in message
news:7rklbm...@mid.individual.net...
OMG Poe, you'd make an awesome serial killer. You'd surely never get
caught. lol
Chocolic
Kathy
> Ha, a reverse "tiny dancer special"!
Or conversely, a "michael snyder special".
Kathy
Marianna
> > Ha, a reverse "tiny dancer special"!
> Or conversely, a "michael snyder special".
>
> Kathy
No, a Michael Snyder special would be one where a wife tied her
husband to the bed while he slept and then tortured him to death over
several days, only to be acquitted later by a jury composed entirely
of women who accepted the wife's tear-stained testimony that she had
to do it because he forgot to get her an anniversary card.
Marianna
Michael Snyder
> Michael Snyder wrote:
>> Ha, a reverse "tiny dancer special"!
>
> Or conversely, a "michael snyder special".
If you could support the premise that I post about
a dozen of these a day, yes, you could call it that.
Linda Griffith
"Marianna" <nomiddle...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:849c7364-a172-46f3...@c29g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
Good answer!
Michael Snyder
I agree!
JonesieCat
"Michael Snyder" <msn...@sonic.net> wrote in message
news:4b55f9e3$0$1605$742e...@news.sonic.net...
MS, I would only add that in your scenario the torture of her loved one
would surely have started with her wearing one of those anti-rape
appliances, and then it went downhill from there. That'd teach the sucker to
forget their anniversary. ;-)))
jc
Kathy
> Kathy wrote:
>> Michael Snyder wrote:
>>> Ha, a reverse "tiny dancer special"!
>>
>> Or conversely, a "michael snyder special".
>
> If you could support the premise that I post about
> a dozen of these a day, yes, you could call it that.
I'm sure you would, if you could find a dozen of them as easily as Tiny
finds the ones she has posted.
Kathy
M
>
> Ok, I'm not cut out to be a serial killer! I wouldn't have thought of a
> hand truck. In the back of my mind I'd be going, "Oh a handtruck would
> make me really conspicuous.
I think that kind of line of thought leads a lot of criminals to be
caught easily.
"Oh! I don't want to do [easy, low key solution] because people
might get suspicious. I'll do [red-flag-something-is-wrong move]
instead."
M
I'm thinking the ultimate Snyder special might go like this:
Woman loses $17,000 to nigerian scam. She is frightened her husband
will be angry
She shoots hubby with a shotgun while he sleeps.
She leaves with the kids WHILE HER HUSBAND IS STILL ALIVE and asking
"why?" She does not call 9-1-1 to try to save him.
During the trial she has her family and friends say that her husband
yelled at her.
Massive publicity is generated about her being an abused wife.
She shows some sexy garmet and claims he made her wear it and she was
ashamed. There is no evidence to confirm taht he, not she, bought the
outfit.
She gets a few months in a mental institution after being found guilty
of some seriously reduced charge
She sues her husbands parents -sucessfully- for custody of the kids.
Sounds far-fetched, doesn't it?
That is exactly what happened with Mary Winkler.
That is what I think of as the "Michael Snyder Special." Maybe I'm
not doing him justice?
Mick
realpch
Yup. They have entered into the Twilight Zone. They are focused on
appearing "normal".
Michael Snyder
Hah, I recognized it by the third line. ;-)
M
Yes, but you did not recognize it by the first line. Had news
reporters done their job, you would have.
The level of media covering Winkler's Nigerian scam loss of $17,000
was strikingly low. "Blame the Victim" is OK when the victim is
male.
I personally made sure that a report the loss (with appropriate cite)
was put into Wikipedea. Before I did that, there was extensive text
on hubby being an angry, abusive dude that someone else has since
removed.
Mick
JonesieCat
"M" <mc...@pitt.edu> wrote in message
news:8d9692e5-12be-408f...@r37g2000vbp.googlegroups.com...
***I knew it by the first line. I bet others here did too?
jc
M
> Ha, a reverse "tiny dancer special"!
>
Note tht this case goes directly against the idea that women currently
have the "inalienable right" to murder tehier husbands.
Or course, she used the wrong defense, "Some else did it."
Had she said the magic words, "He was abusive and I was frightened,"
who knows what would have happened?
Mick
realpch
I knew it from the first line. That was the triggering situation for the
crime. And something that went a long way towards explaining it, for me.
I don't remember reading about it without the money loss mentioned.