TRAVERSE CITY — Lyle Sutton cringed as he gripped his cane and listened to audio tapes of a Traverse City man tell detectives that he murdered his wife, Sutton's sister, in a drunken rage.
Prosecutors on Wednesday played recorded interviews of Michael Marvin, 48, as he told Grand Traverse sheriff's deputies in February that he killed his wife, Shari, 46, after an argument over infidelity in their Garfield Township apartment off LaFranier Road.
"It made my stomach turn," Sutton said. "I was tearing up."
But it's uncertain whether the audio tapes will be admissible during Michael Marvin's 13th Circuit Court trial, slated to begin in late August. Judge Thomas G. Power plans to continue a suppression motion hearing over the tapes next week.
Grand Traverse County authorities charged Michael Marvin in February with an open count of murder. Authorities contend he stabbed his wife seven times with a kitchen knife. Shari Marvin died from internal hemorrhaging caused by the stab wounds.
Michael Marvin called authorities after the Feb. 25 stabbing and waited outside the apartment until they arrived, deputies said. They walked in and found Shari Marvin face-up on a bed with blood on her hands and clothing.
Deputies then found Michael Marvin inside the bathroom "in the act of cutting his neck area with a knife," court records show. He was taken to Munson Medical Center for a "reported suicide attempt with knife wounds to (the) neck area."
Sheriff's Detective Paul Gomez visited Marvin at the hospital, and the accused murderer admitted his guilt.
"I'm going to plead guilty because I am guilty," said Marvin, whose blood-alcohol level at the time was four times the state's legal limit. "I'm guilty as hell. I know I did it."
Philip Settles, Marvin's attorney, contends his client's elevated level of intoxication prompted him to make such incriminating statements. Settles said Marvin also asserted his right to remain silent, but authorities continued to interrogate him at both the Dennis W. Finch Law Enforcement Center and the Grand Traverse County Jail.
"He did invoke his right to remain silent," Settles said.
Marvin remains in the county jail, where he is required to wear a helmet and restraint straps when he leaves his cell to protect him from self-inflicted injuries.
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Michael Marvin
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Shari Lee Marvin
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