The Scott Falter Case

In 1997 another Phoenix man, 43-year-old Scott Falater, was accused of
murdering his wife. On the night of January 16, 1997, neighbor Greg Koons saw
Mr. Falater hold his wife's head under water. Not clear on what was going on,
but having heard screaming, Koons called the police. The police arrived to a
gruesome crime scene -- a bloodied pool and Mrs. Falater dead with 44 stab
wounds. Scott Falater, present at the crime scene, with blood on his neck and
band-aids on his hands, was brought to the police station to undergo
questioning. He denied any knowledge of the brutal murder and thus began his
celebrated sleepwalking defense. Police video from the night of the murder shows
Falater saying he is unaware why he is being questioned.
Like Steinberg before him, Falater claimed he had been sleepwalking at the
time of the murder. Also like Steinberg, he acknowledged the murder, but said he
remembered nothing about what happened; he was asleep at the time. "He was
sleepwalking at the time the event occurred and he had no consciousness
operating in his mind at the time, in fact, his brain was, in fact, asleep,"
said defense attorney Michael Kimerer during opening statements at the murder
trial.
Prosecutor Juan Martinez told a Maricopa County Superior Court jury that
Falater "had an agenda" when he stabbed his wife, Yamila, 44 times. According to
the prosecution, the defendant changed clothes and placed his bloodied clothing
along with the murder weapon -- a hunting knife -- in a Tupperware container. He
then put the container in a trash bag with his boots and socks and stashed the
bag in the spare tire well in trunk of his car. After he killed her he took ...
all of the items that showed that he was the person that actually killed her and
he hid them," said Martinez. Prosecutors said when police searched Falater's
Volvo, they found "one neat little package" of evidence, including the gloves.
In this case there was also an eyewitness: his neighbor. After hearing
moaning, the neighbor saw Falater pull on gloves, drag the body over to the pool
and roll it in. He said he saw Falater hold his wife's head under water and then
the neighbor called 911.
Defense attorneys did not dispute that Falater killed his wife of 20 years
and the mother of his two children. But Attorney Kimerer said the evidence would
show that Falater should be acquitted because he was sleepwalking when the
murder happened.
Dr. Rosalind Cartwright, a sleep disorder expert who examined Falater, said
it was possible. "Sometimes they hurt themselves. Sometimes they hurt other
people. But this is a state in which they are confused. They're not conscious.
They think something terrible is happening and they have to defend themselves
so, often, they will fight," she told CNN.
The defense argument was that sleep tests conducted on Falater showed he fit
the profile of a sleepwalker and had a history of sleepwalking. Kimerer said
Falater was undergoing severe stress related to his job as a product engineer at
Motorola, sleeping only two or three hours per night at the time.
As the defense explained it, Falater returned home from work on the night of
January 16, 1997, had dinner with his family and tried to fix a faulty pool
pump. After getting his tools -- including the knife -- and work clothes out of
the Tupperware container in the trunk of his car, he decided to do the repair
later, Kimerer said. Kimerer said Falater went to sleep exhausted. His
explanation for what happened next was that Falater was trying to fix the pool
pump as he was sleepwalking and reacted in a rage when his wife came across him.
Kimerer called Falater's actions after the killing "nonsensical and illogical,"
which he said were typical of a sleepwalker.
Testifying after opening arguments, neighbor Koons said Falater's motions
appeared fluid and natural. Kimerer said Koons stated before the trial that
Falater appeared "robot-like and mechanical," but Koons denied he used those
words.
The prosecution and defense also portrayed differing views of the
relationship between Falater and his wife. Prosecutors hinted at marital discord
over the family's Mormon religion, with Yamila wanting to be less involved with
the church. The defense, however, said the two were "soulmates" and there was no
discord at all in the marriage.
At the trial two experts backed his story. Then on June 16, 1999 Falater
testified on his own behalf. Falater was asked about the gloves he put on after
he stabbed his wife but before he dragged her body to the pool. Would he have
thought to wear gloves if he were sleepwalking? On the other hand, if this were
premeditated, wouldn't he have put them on before the stabbing?
On June 18, 1999 a prosecution expert testified that Falater's actions were
"too complex" to have been carried out during sleepwalking.
On June 25, 1999 the jury returned its verdict: Guilty of First Degree
Murder. On January 10, 2000 Scott Falater was sentenced to life imprisonment
with no chance of parole.