Former Camas-Washougal, WA, Battalion Chief Convicted of Murdering Wife
oregonlive.com
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An unfaithful firefighter who strangled his wife in the bed they’d shared for two decades — clearing the way for a new romance with his mistress — was found guilty in the wife’s killing Tuesday.
After a two week trial, a Clark County Superior Court jury needed only one hour of deliberation to determine that Marcelle West, an emergency room nurse, was killed by her husband in their Camas home on Jan. 8, 2024.
Kevin West, who turned 52 over the weekend, wept and cradled his head in his sister’s arms before he was led out of Judge Robert Lewis’ courtroom in handcuffs.
West was a battalion chief at Camas-Washogual Fire Department when he strangled his wife and then called 911 before her body was cold, claiming he’d awoken from a dead sleep to find her suffering a fatal seizure.
Medical Examiners initially ruled the death inconclusive, and had surrendered the body to a funeral home when Clark County Sheriff’s deputies were alerted to the affair with Cynthia Ward and scrambled to arrange a second autopsy. It found hemorrhaging in her neck, a bruise to the back of her head and red dots, known as petechiae, on her face — all indicative of strangulation.
During closing arguments Friday, senior prosecutor Jessica Smith said Kevin West had calculated that alimony payments would be $4,500 a month if he divorced Marcelle West, with whom he had raised two children in their twenties. .
But Kevin West, who made $160,000 per year but had meagre savings and a sky-high mortgage, didn’t want to pay, as he planned to purchase a compound for his new love and her family in Goldendale.
“The motive is glaringly apparent. The defendant’s marriage was deteriorating and he was blaming Marcie for it,” Smith said, noting that in reality it was Kevin West who had already met with his paramour dozens of times.
“To call it an affair is a little bit of an understatement — it was an obsession,” Smith added.
In West’s rendition of events, the couple spent a happy evening Jan. 7 watching two or three movies, eating Chinese food and being romantic for the first time in months.
Meanwhile, text messages showed he was texting his mistress’s mother that same evening, discussing plans for the divorce he said he would file for on Jan. 9.
“I want you to know how spiritually connected we are,” Kevin West wrote to Waltrud Ward, describing her daughter. “I absolutely ache for her wishing tomorrow would come.”
At trial, Kevin West’s testimony hinged on his account of his wife’s inexplicable illness, with the trained EMT saying that Marcelle West had suffered a severe headache and vomited on her final night.
He told investigators they both went to bed around 11 p.m., according to body-worn camera footage played in court.
But Apple Health data from Kevin West’s phone showed him taking nearly a thousand steps in bursts up until 4 a.m.
Defense attorney Brian Walker suggested Marcelle West had gotten up and moved the phone while her husband was asleep. He acknowledged that the defense could not produce an alternate cause of death, but suggested that proved West was innocent.
“Kevin has had two years to come up with another reason why she died,” Walker said during closing arguments. “If he was really diabolical, he could have tumbled her down the stairs.”
The jury didn’t buy that logic, however, convicting Kevin West of first- and second-degree murder.
As Kevin West wept, Marcelle West’s family filed out of the courtroom. Soon, a group Marcelle West’s colleagues from PeaceHealth Medical Center cheered on the courthouse steps
“Marcie was one of the kindest, sweetest people you would ever meet. She always had a smile on her face,” nurse Connie Hahn said in an interview. “It has been three years of hell.”
Before Tuesday’s verdict, Kevin West had been out of custody on bail for roughly a year and living off his pension. He proposed to Ward, 52, in September and has been living in her home in Estacada.
“2024 will be our year,” Kevin West wrote in a Christmas card that was later found hidden in his garage. “Our story will ring in the New Year, loud for all to hear. I love you, Cynthia.”
A sentencing hearing has been set for Feb. 27.
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