Murder sentence a 'joke'; Husband upset over jail time for axe murderer
Posted By TRACY McLAUGHLIN
Posted 3 years ago
The husband of a Wasaga Beach woman who was murdered with an axe said yesterday her killer's sentencing mocks the justice system.
"The system shows people how to commit murder and get away with it," Chad Marsh said. "It's a joke."
Last Friday, Adam Newman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years for the second-degree murder of Yvonne Marsh on March 16, 2006.
Newman admitted he was angry that night when Marsh told him she was leaving him to go back to her husband, whom she had left some months before.
After she went to bed that night, Newman went to the garage to get a splitting axe, then gave her several blows to the head with the blunt end of the axe as she lay in her bed. He then drove himself to Toronto and turned himself in, telling police to lock him up and throw away the key.
In the police car, Newman told police, "I love her," but said he killed her because she wouldn't leave her husband, and "I couldn't take it anymore."
Later, he asked police: "So, did she die?"
That morning, as her husband went to her home to re-unite with his wife, he found police surrounding the house. He let them in with his key, and found his wife covered in blood in their bed.
After Newman's arrest, police seized his briefcase where he kept a day planner that itemized sightings of Yvonne Marsh in parking lots, stores or in her driveway.
"Twelve years is ridiculous. How brutal does a murder have to be to get the maximum 25 years of parole?" Marsh said. "My wife gets a life sentence with no chance of parole."
While first-degree murder carries a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, second-degree murder carries a life sentence with a chance to get parole ranging from 10 to 25 years.
Contact the writer at news@thebarrieexaminer.com
