DOCTOR KILLS HIS BRIDE
Sometimey
choked to death on a piece of lemon pastry, was found guilty yesterday
of second-degree murder.
It was the medical evidence and prosecution experts, jurors said, that
convinced them that the 52-year-old victim was strangled.
Dr. Harvey Barry Jacobs, 57, whose wife, Nadine, died in their Windcrest
Lane home early the morning of April 25, 1999, faces a mandatory
sentence of 15 years to life in prison at a sentencing scheduled for
Feb. 4.
"I think, for whatever reason, he just flew off the handle and hit her a
couple of times and then strangled her," said juror Laquita Treher
shortly after the verdict was announced in a San Diego courtroom.
"And then I think he thought to himself: 'My goodness, I've got to cover
this thing up. I've got to make it look like she choked to death.' "
Most of the jurors, who deliberated for seven days before reaching their
verdict, said they did not believe the defense offered by Jacobs'
lawyers, William La Fond and Domenic Lombardo.
The pair argued that Nadine Jacobs sufferred from bulimia -- a
binge-and-purge eating disorder -- and was drunk the night she died.
They said she got out of bed while her husband slept, went to the
kitchen and wolfed down lemon pastry. They contended a large glob of the
pastry got lodged in her windpipe.
Jacobs, who did not testify, told police he found his wife of two weeks
dead on the floor but tried to revive her. His lawyers tried to show
that Nadine Jacobs' neck and head were injured during his resuscitation
efforts.
But prosecutor Phyllis Shess told the jury Nadine Jacobs' injuries were
consistent with only one scenario: a blow on the head, rendering her
either unconscious or stunned. She then was strangled and had pastry
stuffed into her mouth to make it look like an accident,
Shess said.
"It wouldn't have made a difference if this woman was drunk as a skunk
and had eaten everything but the kitchen sink," juror Treher said.
"That didn't kill
her. She was strangled."
During the trial, many of Nadine Jacobs' friends testified that the
couple often argued, and that Barry Jacobs was jealous and controlling.
One witness said he overheard Jacobs call his wife a "whore."
"This man is a control freak," Shess said during closing arguments.
Jurors said they went through the evidence piece by piece.
The first few days of deliberations were spent deciding whether Nadine
Jacobs had been murdered; the rest of the time they discussed whether
her husband had planned to kill her or had acted in a moment of passion
-- the
difference between first-and second-degree murder.
Shess said she was pleased with the verdict and praised the jury for its
diligence.
"I think the jury has held him appropriately responsible for the murder
of this woman," Shess said, adding she had felt all along that the
physical evidence was "extraordinarily strong." Shess called the defense
"incredible and ludicrous."
"What was particularly offensive was that they were demeaning the
character of a lovely woman who could not speak for herself."
Jacobs showed no emotion while the verdict was read. His lawyers said
they will appeal.
"Our client desperately and quite heroically tried to save his wife from
dying," La Fond said after the verdict.
Juror Dennis Sweeney of Poway, a diesel mechanic for Hawthorne
Machinery, said one piece of evidence all the jurors felt was damning
was the recording of the 911 call Jacobs made.
"Over and over again he said he didn't need paramedics, that she was
dead," Sweeney said. "But if you love someone, you're going to want
them to come anyway. I think all of us felt that way."
Because of rulings made by Judge Bernard Revak before the trial, the
jury did not know several things about Jacobs and his wife.
For instance, they were not told that documents filed with the Virginia
and Maryland medical boards show Jacobs had been to prison in the 1970s
for billing Medicare and Medicaid for medical tests that were not
performed.
Had Jacobs taken the witness stand, his criminal past could have been
raised by the prosecution.
The jurors also did not know that Nadine Jacobs allegedly told a friend
shortly before her death that she was planning to leave her husband.
Hearing of that statement yesterday, one juror said, "That would have
nailed it."
© Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Doctor convicted in death of his wife
Faces 15 years to life in newlywed's murder
By J. Harry Jones
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
SAN DIEGO
January 7, 2000
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