TRAVERSE CITY — Editor's Note: Another in a series of people, places and events that made headlines in northern Michigan in 2010.
Family comes first for Lyle Sutton.
The Traverse City resident plans to organize a family reunion next summer. He often calls relatives just to check up on them. And family falls even higher on his priority list after a local man killed his sister.
"You can't take family for granted," Sutton said. "If somebody is mad at their mom or dad, they better make up because there's no second chances. When it's done, it's done."
His sister, Shari Marvin, fell victim Feb. 25 to a domestic dispute turned murder. Michael Marvin, 48, repeatedly stabbed Shari, his wife, with a kitchen knife after an argument over infidelity in their Garfield Township apartment. She died from internal hemorrhaging caused by stab wounds.
Prosecutors charged Marvin with an open count of murder after he drunkenly told deputies he stabbed his wife. Marvin called 911 after the stabbing and waited outside the apartment until deputies arrived. Authorities entered the apartment and found Shari Marvin face-up on a bed with blood on her hands and clothing.
Deputies then found Marvin in the bathroom, cutting his neck with a knife. He was taken to Munson Medical Center for a reported suicide attempt.
Jurors in November found Marvin guilty of second-degree murder. Two weeks later, 13th Circuit Court Judge Thomas G. Power sentenced Marvin to 15 to 25 years in prison.
Sutton was pleased that jurors convicted Marvin, but said he wanted a harsher punishment for the man who killed his sister.
"I would have liked to see him get 25 to life," Sutton said.
Sutton sat through weeks of testimony, during which he heard an array of stories on how his sister died. Marvin also chose to defend himself, and his lack of experience was evident as testimony and cross-examination extended the trial by several days. He asked Power to remove two defense attorneys — Philip Settles and Paul Jarboe — because he believed he'd have a better shot at winning the case by himself.
"I thought the whole thing was fairly strange," said Jarboe, who accompanied Marvin at trial and helped him when he requested assistance. "I think everybody involved tried to convince him that it made more sense for an attorney to handle the trial."
But for a man with no prior legal experience, Jarboe and Power said they were surprised by how Marvin handled himself in court.
"Marvin actually did a pretty good job," Power said. "He is very smart and he spent a lot of time getting ready. He made some decisions that a lawyer would have undoubtedly done differently."
His trial preparation also was unusual, as corrections officers prevented him from using a writing utensil to take notes in his cell because of an apparent suicide attempt. And because of that and other attempts to harm himself, deputies outfitted him in a white helmet and multiple sets of restraint straps during his initial court hearings.
Follow our Newsmakers 2010 series online. Stories will be posted as they're published at record-eagle.com/newsmakers.
