Woman receives LWOP in husband's slaying
E/C Annie
By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News
June 13, 2006
After sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom Monday, Margery Johnson
took a seemingly unusual step and gave Jackie Butler a long hug.
"You take care of yourself," Johnson quietly advised.
Johnson is the mother of Alvin Spears, whose bloody murder with a
sledgehammer on Dec. 7, 2003, left his teeth strewn throughout his
Lakewood apartment, a prosecutor said Monday.
Butler is the mother of Darlene Spears, Alvin's wife, who received the
mandatory sentence Monday of life in prison without parole for the
first-degree murder of her husband.
Jefferson County District Judge Brian Boatright added another 48 years
onto the sentence given that Darlene Spears was also found guilty of
conspiracy to commit murder.
"She (Butler) is hurting, too," Johnson said of her counterpart. "Just
like I am."
A jury found Spears guilty in March after prosecutors argued the murder
was carried out to collect on $385,000 in insurance money. Darlene
Spears' brother was investigated for involvement in the murder, but he
was never charged.
Defense attorneys argued that Louisiana drug dealers killed Alvin
Spears because he was a police informant and Darlene took out the
insurance policy because she knew his life was in danger.
Prosecutor Anne Stavig said Spears' death was particularly troubling
because it came at the hands of his wife, and he "had really started a
new life."
Alvin Spears, 28, drove a milk truck, sang Christian rap, and was
studying to become a minister, according to his mother and courtroom
testimony.
Alvin Spears' parents, now divorced, gave differing views of Darlene as
they spoke at the sentencing.
Johnson spoke first, and kindly, about Darlene.
"Darlene has not only been a daughter-in-law, but a daughter," said the
Baton Rouge, La. resident.
Alvin Spears Sr., who was on a speakerphone, said he had predicted
Darlene would kill his son.
"I said, 'Alvin, I can see clean through this woman,' " Alvin Spears
Sr. said of the first time he met Darlene. "She's nothing."
Darlene Spears, now 32, did not speak on her behalf at the sentencing,
but her attorneys said she would appeal.
Dressed in a jail jumpsuit, she appeared relaxed throughout most of the
hearing.