Marie Strickland

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She was a small town girl who found true love with marriage number two.

He was very sarcastic and humorous.

She was infatuated with him.

Everything was perfect.

But this happy union comes to a sudden end.

He got about eight feet from the garage and collapsed.

A man laying in his driveway covered in blood.

We didn't know what had happened.

In a town where everyone knows everyone, the rumors run rampant.

I could have pictured a jealous husband or something doing it.

He said, I wanted him dead.

Is this sweet country couple hiding a laundry list of secrets and lies?

Caught cheating on the school bus.

I want a divorce.

I want you gone.

She said, I'm afraid something bad might happen.

Does that not sound suspicious to you?

What would it take to push you to do that?

He took the gun and tossed it in the Teleco River.

It's just such a blur.

October 11th, 2013, Teleco Plains, Tennessee.

At 12.38 p.m., the peace and tranquility of this small southern town is ripped apart with a single 911 call.

Marie Strickland had been running errands in town, came home and found her husband lying in the driveway.

She's upset.

She's distraught.

We didn't know what had happened.

We didn't know if he was breathing.

We didn't know

if he had any signs of life.

All we knew was he was in his driveway bleeding.

Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy, Clint Brookshire, is dispatched to the scene where a long driveway leads uphill to a home and a freestanding garage.

The residence and the garage were both on the side of a hill.

A female sergeant, Marie Strickland, met me in the driveway.

Marie tells him that her mechanic husband, 41-year-old Michael Strickland, had been working in his garage that morning.

When I asked where the male subject was, she pointed toward the garage.

I ran up there.

At the top of the driveway, Deputy Brookshire finds Michael face down on the ground, just outside the door of his garage.

It was almost like he had been running and just fell.

There was a lot of blood.

There was no movement.

There was no signs of life at all.

I asked if she knew what may have happened to him, and she said no.

Deputy Brookshire radios for assistance.

Within minutes, EMTs arrive on the scene and confirm what Brookshire already suspects.

He didn't have a pulse.

He wasn't breathing.

We had declared that he was deceased.

As far as Michael's cause of death, that's less obvious.

There was blood on him.

You could see some blood around his ear and neck.

We couldn't really figure out where it was coming from initially.

But looking at his neck, we've seen a little piece of skin that was open that showed there was a wound.

My thoughts are, okay, was he working on something?

Was he working on a vehicle and it fell on him?

Was he stabbed?

Was he shot?

What caused this injury?

Was Michael Strickland truly the victim of a tragic accident?

Or was his death the result of something far more menacing?

For Michael and Marie Strickland, The quiet life they led in teleco planes seemed picture-perfect.

But the road that led to their wedded bliss was a rocky one that dates back to their teen years.

Warm and outgoing, Marie was one of the most popular girls at Teleco Plains High School.

Marie was always an outgoing person.

We had our own little clique.

We had about five of us that came together all the time, and we were probably the loudest and most outgoing in the class.

Marie's best friend, Katrina, was always by her side, as was Marie's boyfriend, Ben.

She wrote in my memory book in school, it has her and Ben, and she drew a heart around it, so I would say she was a little infatuated with it.

Tipo Huckle High School Sweetheart.

Like a lot of small-town high school sweethearts, Marie and Ben married shortly after graduation.

In 1991, Marie gave birth to a daughter.

Motherhood seemed to be a good fit for Marie.

Marie's the motherly top.

That's what she comes off as.

She was comfortable at home being a homemaker, helping with her daughter.

She even worked at the little school, volunteered there.

Marie put forth a attitude of everything with Marie was perfect, and she never dropped that.

She always seemed to be so in control and so in charge of everything.

Marie and Ben still made time for friends, especially Katrina and Katrina's husband, Michael Strickland.

Katrina was Marie's best friend all through high school and after high school.

I was married to Michael and one of Michael's best friends was Marie's husband, Ben.

The two couples were tight, but after 11 years of marriage, the chemistry between Marie and Ben began to fade.

Her and Ben had been having problems, you know, getting along.

Friends and family figured the two high school sweethearts would find a way to patch things up.

So it came as a surprise in 2005 when Marie and Ben announced they were getting a divorce.

By that time, it was a fate Katrina and Michael had also suffered.

I was kind of shocked when I heard that her and Ben had divorced.

I guess because I always thought they were just, you know, had been together since high school.

They were going to last forever.

Marie and Ben's divorce made for juicy gossip in their small hometown, especially when word got out that Marie was spending more and more time with her best friend Katrina's ex-husband, Michael Strickland.

I don't know if they were seeing one another before anybody divorced, but Ben always had his suspicions

that Mike and Marie were seeing one another before the divorce.

By 2005, Marie and Michael were openly dating,

which affected Marie's lifelong friendship with Katrina.

After I saw them together, that just ended our friendship, you know.

It was easy to see why Marie was so smitten with Michael.

My dad's a big, strong dude.

Like, he was a very big guy.

He was very sarcastic.

Good sense of humor.

He was active, you know, sweet.

Michael was equally taken with Marie.

But Michael had a couple of other passions as well.

Mike liked to do mechanic work on cars, drag racing, hot rods.

He would fall off in his work, and that was his own little world, little piece of paradise.

In addition to his mechanic work, Michael was also a dedicated parent to the four-year-old son he shared with Katrina.

Every Sunday after church, they'd go to Hooters and eat.

He would take him up to the shop and, you know, work on cars.

The sun rose and set in that boy's rear.

He loved that child's death.

In 2007, Michael and Marie decided to get married.

They bought a home with a freestanding garage and lived on 10 acres of property that Michael owned just outside of town.

Their closest neighbor was probably about a quarter mile away.

It's a very rural area.

Sharing joint custody with their children from their previous marriages, Marie and Michael worked to build new memories as a blended family.

We always try to get together at mom and dad's every year for every holiday.

I remember we had Easter one year and we painted eggs, we colored them and I'd chase them around the house.

Then in 2010, Michael embarked on a new business venture.

He had met a guy that had his own buses, so Michael started working for him, driving a bus.

Then he decided, okay, I'm going to go out on my own.

So he bought a couple of buses.

He had his own routes and

had his own drivers and there was one that he did drive himself, which coincidentally was the one that Jacob wrote.

It was very weird at first because you know you think my dad's driving the bus, but I enjoyed it because I got to see him every day.

Things seemed to be going well for Michael and Marie

until November 2011, when Marie's stepfather suddenly passed away.

When her stepdad died, her and her brother, Chris, became closer.

With Marie and her brother leaning on each other for support, she slowly rebounded from the loss of her stepdad.

In the meantime, Michael's fleet of buses had grown.

He was doing good with it.

I'm wanting to say six buses.

Between running his bus right over the morning, running it over the evening, he would be in his shop working on vehicles.

So he was constantly working, doing something.

And with her daughter now 22, Marie took a part-time job.

Marie worked part-time at the post office.

After weathering a pair of divorces and the death of a loved one, it seemed that life for Marie and Michael was better than ever.

They seemed happy.

They seemed to get along.

Then comes the afternoon of October 11th.

Detectives are at the Strickland home following a panicked call from Marie.

She found him lying in the driveway.

His clothes were saturated in blood.

I could tell just by looking at him that there were no signs of life, so I did not attempt to try to revive him in any way.

All we knew was there's a male body laying in the driveway.

After we had declared that he was deceased, we found a lot of blood, and in finding blood, you always want to find the source.

As investigators survey the scene, they realize that Michael was not initially wounded in the driveway.

We found a trail of blood from the shop to where his body was at.

It was clear that the death wound took place in the garage.

It appeared that he might have been working on a vehicle that was up on a high lift when the incident occurred.

And the blood trail actually started just behind that vehicle on the high lift.

We traveled some distance moving at some speed before he collapsed.

We had several different theories.

You know, he's in a garage, so he was working with compressed gas or compressed air, things of that nature.

Coming up, as investigators take a closer look at the crime scene, new evidence points to something more calculated.

Bullet marks were found inside the shop.

And as word of Michael's death spreads around town, deeply rooted animosity is unearthed.

Keith had made statements that was happy that he was dead.

After weathering a pair of very public and very scandalous divorces, Marie Strickland and her second husband, Michael, were enjoying a quiet country life in Teleco Plains, Tennessee.

But just after noon on October 11th, 2013, Marie called 911 to report that she discovered Michael in a pool of blood outside the door of his garage.

He had got about eight feet from the garage, and that's where he collapsed and he was face down.

Investigators from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, along with with responding Monroe County Sheriff's Officer Clint Brookshire, determine that Michael likely received a fatal injury in his workshop.

But what had caused it?

Hoses blow, things get stuck.

We didn't know exactly what happened, but it appeared whatever it was come from the right side of the garage if you're facing the garage.

So then we start trying to find what may have done that.

As they survey one of the cars in Michael's garage, detectives make a telling discovery.

There was the bullet found in the tire of the car that he was working on.

Is it possible Michael Strickland had died of a gunshot wound?

To one of the EMTs prepping Michael's body for transport, that theory seems plausible.

Forensically, we can't say that this is 100% a gunshot wound and this is the cause of death, but from what we've seen, it appeared to be a gunshot wound.

Operating from this theory, detectives are able to determine the possible location of the shooter at the time the gun was fired.

The shooter had been sitting in a chair next to the car that he was working on.

And we knew that because of the trajectory of the bullet, he was shot in the neck on the right side.

We know that most murders within the family are committed by the family.

The first suspect you're going to have in any murder case, assuming it's not drug or gang-related, the first suspect you're going to have is the spouse.

That evening, investigators sit down with Marie at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for a formal interview.

They start by asking Marie to pace them through the events leading up to her discovering Michael's body in the driveway.

We got up probably after seven.

He went to the chiropractor in Knoxville.

Probably left around 8, somewhere in there.

He came home maybe around

sometime between 10 and 10.30.

He ate,

changed, and then he went up to the shop to work.

I was up there with him until about close to 11.30.

According to Marie, shortly after 11.30, she left to give her daughter a ride to work.

So I left probably around 20 to 12.

That's what I used to do.

Took her save a lot.

Went by the library.

Came home.

She had returned home, went back in the house.

She knew that Mike was up in the garage working.

Once she was back at the house, Marie started a load of laundry.

Around 12.30, her cell phone rang.

It was one of Michael's friends wanting to talk to him about doing some repair work.

I was on my way up there.

Saying what you want.

I'm on traveling.

I didn't know.

I ran up to you again.

I saw the boy.

Called mama.

Marie tells them she never heard or saw anything suspicious, but she can't say for sure whether or not Michael had any visitors to his shop shop that day.

So we have people that will come by and ask him to drive their car and say, tell me what you think's wrong with you.

Anything

different recently happened?

Family life, business life,

anything?

Marie insists that Michael didn't have any enemies and can think of nothing out of the ordinary that's happened lately.

No, he's pretty laid back about stuff like that.

Is he not really a warrior?

Detectives ask Marie if their marriage is a happy one.

Marie's only complaint is that when it came to expressing his love for her, Michael sometimes missed the mark.

I think I'm understanding what you're saying.

Or someone someone else might have

thought your roses were found.

Okay.

Yeah.

But according to Marie, what Michael lacked in the way of grand romantic gestures, he more than made up for in the bedroom.

How was y'all's life as far as husband and life, as far as intimacy?

It was very good.

Okay.

Hard question.

Did you have anything to do with Michael's death?

No.

Do you have any idea who did?

No.

You have any idea who or want to?

I don't.

To detectives, Marie seems to be telling the truth.

Thought of nothing else.

Life insurance.

No, we didn't have anything like that.

No cost.

No.

Though it appears Marie had no reason, financial or otherwise, to shoot Michael, it's clear she partly blames herself for his his death.

Can I ask an odd question?

Yes.

Do you think if I had that CPR

that I could have helped him?

Honestly, I don't think it would have made any difference at all.

Just to be truthful with you,

it wouldn't have helped him.

Not in this case.

So, I mean, don't blame yourself for not doing that.

Detectives release Marie and must now face the difficult task of informing the rest of his family about his death.

They start with his ex-wife, Katrina.

I was just like,

breathe.

Because I mean, how do you tell your kid that their dad's gone?

I set Jacob down on the couch and I told him.

Whenever mom first told me, I was in shock.

I didn't really believe it at first.

You don't think that this could happen to me?

Jacob Blessy's heart did not take it well at all.

He was obviously heartbroken.

He, even to us, me, mom, and dad, he would not hardly speak.

In a town the size of Teleco Plains, it doesn't take long for word of Michael's death to make the rounds.

And as the small-town rumor mill cranks up, Investigators get wind that at least one person in town doesn't seem so heartbroken.

His wife's ex-husband and Michael's former best friend, Ben.

Ben had made statements that he was happy that he was dead.

Though it's just hearsay, this rumor raises an immediate red flag with investigators.

So obviously that led police to wonder whether he was involved in this.

Coming up, was Marie's ex holding a grudge against his former best friend?

Ben became a person of interest.

And as the rumors continue to fly, a shocking revelation is made.

He was caught cheating on the school bus.

I could have pictured a jealous husband or something doing it.

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Just hours after Marie Strickland reported the death of her husband, Michael, rumors in the small town of Teleco Plains, Tennessee are flying.

Ben had made statements that he wished he could have killed Michael.

So obviously that led police to wonder whether he was involved in this.

The police wanted to know how well I knew Ben and if I'd been in contact with him.

Before investigators are able to talk to Ben, they learn that the medical examiner has finished Michael's autopsy.

As expected, the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the right side of his neck.

The autopsy indicated that it was an intermediate range firing, that it pierced the right side, exited to the left, about 9.6 inches from the top of the head, that it pierced his jugular vein and his larynx, and that was the cause of death.

With Michael's cause of death confirmed, detectives locate Ben at his apartment in nearby Lenore City.

Standing face to face with law enforcement, Ben doesn't mince words about his feelings for Michael.

Ben was not brokenhearted that Mike was gone.

He was happy that he was dead.

Believe it or not, somebody could say that, but he did.

Through time, Ben's anger over Marie and Michael's relationship faded.

However, in recent years, he'd found another reason to detest Michael.

I had heard Ben say Mike was mean to Marie's daughter and would call her names.

And I think Ben was upset that Mike treated their daughter like that.

He said, I wanted him dead, but God got to him first.

Ben insists that a few harsh words are the extent of his involvement in Michael's murder.

His story made sense to law enforcement.

His demeanor was a truthful demeanor, and good law enforcement officers can look at someone's demeanor, see how they answer questions, see if they're forthcoming.

And he answered questions appropriately.

He was forthcoming.

Ben did have an alibi.

He was eliminated pretty early on.

With Ben no longer on the list of potential perpetrators, detectives turned to Michael's sister Amy and his ex-wife, Katrina.

We were asked if we knew of anybody that would have wanted to see harm come of Michael.

To our knowledge, we did not know anybody that would want him

killed.

At the time, I didn't think anyone would have a reason to.

To me, he was a great dad.

He was kind to everybody that he met, really smooth with them, like smooth with people.

He was very kind.

However, Katrina says there was one person Michael hadn't been getting along with lately.

Her former best friend, Michael's wife, Marie.

It wasn't a happy home because they argued.

They argued a lot, and I knew they argued.

As for the source of the arguments, Katrina tells detectives that Michael was apparently up to his his old philandering ways.

He had been cheating on her.

She had followed him to Sweetwater one day and actually caught him.

Marie caught Mike cheating on the school bus.

In a way, I was like, well, you reap what you sow, you know, because you were aware of how he was when he was with me.

So did you think he would change because he got with you?

But according to Michael's family, he wasn't the only one in the marriage that was being unfaithful.

Michael was not a saint.

Michael did have one on the side and come to find out she did too.

He wasn't faithful.

Well, she wasn't either.

She was dating one of the postal drivers.

He run one of the tractor trailers for the post office.

According to Michael's sister, the infidelity had gotten so bad that the marriage was on the brink of collapse.

He had called me and told me that he wanted to get a divorce and asked if I knew a lawyer.

And we didn't live in the same counties anymore, but I found one that at our time aunt had used several times and made him an appointment and me and him met at the lawyer's office.

Amy says that Michael had divorce papers drawn up, but when he presented them to Marie, she refused to sign them.

The day that we went to the lawyer's office and had the paperwork done, of course, we had to wait for the paperwork to get typed up in order for it to be filed.

But he told me that when he did get the paperwork, he was going to take it home and basically lay it on her pillow and say, Hey, here you go.

I want a divorce.

I want you gone.

And from what I understood, it did not go over well.

She did not want to leave.

Basically, she refused.

Instead, Marie demanded that Michael move out.

But Michael told her he wasn't going anywhere.

It was his property.

He had had all of that before they got married.

So now he was not going to give up what was rightfully his before the marriage.

And I can't say that I blame him.

I wouldn't either.

As far as Amy knew, Mike and Marie were still at an impasse.

That is, until Michael was murdered.

For detectives, the allegations of infidelity and impending divorce open up a whole new pool of potential killers.

I could have pictured a jealous husband or something doing it.

Hoping to put some names to the rumors, detectives obtain warrants for both Marie and Michael's cell phones.

When they take a look at Michael's phone, they find what appears to be proof of infidelity.

I knew that he was cheating on Marie.

I had another friend on that same website, and she was immediately like, oh my God, yes, he's hit on me.

And here's all of our conversations.

So it's not like it was even hidden in the community.

After reviewing the tawdry text messages, detectives begin tracking down the women Michael was communicating with.

They also begin analyzing the contents of Marie's phone as well.

Number one is they are looking for any person that she may have called that day.

Second is they're looking, of course, for text messages.

It's not what investigators find on Marie's phone that raises suspicion, it's what they don't find.

Marie's cell records that we obtained through subpoena were different from the records that were still on her phone.

And it was obvious to us that she had deleted those texts.

Coming up, the questions around Marie's missing text messages continue to swirl.

She couldn't remember what that was about or why that text would have been on her phone.

Does that not sound suspicious to you?

It does.

And a break in the case reveals a new suspect with a spotty record.

A search warrant issue for text message content brought him into our investigative picture.

He was placed on probation and he's violated his probation, so no one knows where he is.

Detectives in Teleco Plains, Tennessee, have just uncovered evidence that Marie Strickland deleted text messages on the day of her husband, Michael Strickland's murder.

Search warrants were issued and they were able to get text messages.

When searching through the deleted messages, detectives uncover a chilling back and forth between Marie and her brother.

There were text messages that pertained to this investigation between Marie and Chris.

In the text that she sent to Chris Smallin, she had said that the gun was cocked, the clip was in, but she wanted to know if this gun was still loaded.

Chris texted her back and said that there's a button that you can push that will, I guess, eject the clip.

That's how you can see if the gun is loaded.

The content put Marie in possession of a firearm the day of the murder, based on the text message times.

Shortly after midnight, detectives knock on Marie's front door.

So law enforcement goes to her.

at her house, the TBI did, and they confront her with these texts.

I confronted her with that information.

She told me that she couldn't remember what that was about or why that text would have been on her phone.

Then he texted you back.

It says,

hit the button on the side of the handle and pull the clip out.

You don't remember it?

Hit the button on the side.

of the handle

and pull the clip out.

That's what your brother text you back.

What does that sound like?

Does it not sound like a gun?

It does.

Why would you be having that conversation the morning prior to your husband being murdered?

You see where I'm coming from?

Right.

Does that not sound

suspicious to you?

It does.

Did you have a gun that day?

No?

I presented Marie with the text messages that were obviously indicating that she had a weapon the day her husband was murdered and repeatedly denied any knowledge of her husband's murder.

Having gotten nowhere with Marie, detectives turn to her 31-year-old brother, Chris Smallin, and confront him with the texts.

After I presented the content of the text messages between he and Marie, he was very truthful about the fact that he had provided a gun recently to Marie for self-defense.

Chris Smallin admits that Marie had called him two weeks before the murder, had indicated that she was somewhat scared of Michael.

and that she needed a gun.

That's when Chris tells detectives something they don't know.

According to Chris, he met up with Marie later that morning at the Teleco Plains library.

She had called him and asked him to meet him at the library.

Once there, she gave the gun back to Chris.

She gave him the gun and said, I'm afraid something bad might happen, so take this gun.

Chris tells detectives that the whole thing made him nervous and a little suspicious.

He talked about the fact that he didn't want to be caught with that firearm.

He didn't want anything to do with it if it had been used to shoot someone.

He took the gun and tossed it in the Teleco River.

Marie had denied any involvement.

When I went back and met with Agent Melton, who had simultaneously interviewed her brother, Mr.

Smallin.

And Mr.

Smallin had provided information that he had provided her with a weapon.

I took that information back to Marie.

So you just get back into good old-fashioned police work.

And good old-fashioned police work is going to the suspect and talk to them, get a statement from them, preferably a statement that's a confession.

You have to hope for that, you pray for that.

They went back to Marie and they said, listen, we've got the statement from Chris.

Chris said that he gave you this gun.

Chris said that you gave it back to him the day of.

Tell us about it.

I wanted to

tell you that we went and talked to your brother Chris.

And Chris told us about giving you a gun.

Once again, Marie proves hard to pin down.

Did you have a gun that day?

No.

Is he lying about that?

Is that what you're saying?

No, I'm not saying he's lying.

Just...

There's nothing else I can say to that.

You know, when somebody gives enough details, you come to the conclusion that either they're telling the truth or they should be in the business of writing fiction.

And Marie would not have been in the business of writing fiction.

Coming up, investigators continue to push Marie for answers.

At that point, you had a pistol that wasn't your car.

Is that right?

It's just such a blur.

It's like parts fast forward or something.

But what she says next throws everything they know about the case into question.

She's trying to get away from me.

At this point, we have gaps in the story.

It's 3.30 in the morning on December 10th, 2013, and detectives are interviewing 41-year-old Marie Strickland in regard to the shooting death of her husband, Michael.

Marie claims she's hesitant to say more because she's trying to protect Michael's reputation, a claim that further confuses detectives.

If you thought your family to be one way or your dad to be so,

would it not curse you to think that you were something different?

I don't know what you're talking about about.

Eventually, what the agent had to do was just to begin to present facts to her and get yes-no answers from her.

She said that Michael was in one of his moods that day.

According to Marie, Michael asked her to come to the garage to sit with him while he worked.

She did, but not before stopping at her car.

She gets out the 380.

She puts it into her back pocket.

She doesn't really know why she decided to take the gun up there.

Something just didn't feel right.

At that point, you had the pistol that wasn't your car.

Is that right?

Shaking your head, yes.

Yeah, yes, all right.

Once again, her answers turn vague.

So she went up to the shop.

She said that there was an argument in the shop.

She didn't know what the argument was about.

Couldn't remember that.

Come to that pool, right to that pool.

You go up there, I mean, you've got the pistol.

And I need to.

Marie tells them that the next thing she remembers is running from Michael.

Why was you running?

I was just trying to get away from him.

And then at this point, we have gaps.

Total gaps in the story.

That she couldn't remember.

Was there a reason you were trying to get away from him?

She tells me a lot of things were blurry about that day.

She thought she recalled running away and firing back towards him.

You remember running and shooting back?

Is that what you're saying?

Yes.

Yes.

Marie claims she just kept running all the way to her house.

She stated that when she got back to the house, she took her daughter to work, and then she went to the library and gave the gun to Christopher Small,

and then she came back home.

Marie says that it wasn't until Michael's customer called that she went back to the garage.

I didn't know what he took her cover.

You got back down.

You got back to work.

Back home.

No matter how much they press her, Marie can't, or perhaps won't, provide a complete account of what transpired.

You said how many times I went over this with my mom, and it's all,

it's just such a blur.

It's just

like parts fast forward or something.

Even so, Detectives have enough to place her under arrest for first-degree murder.

Oh, Lord, we were so happy whenever she got arrested.

She got arrested in December, just a week or two before Christmas.

It breaks your heart a little.

I would have never thought Marie could have snapped and done something like this.

I would have never, out of anybody, seen this coming.

As the case makes its way through the courts, Prosecutors piece together what they think really happened the day Michael was shot.

I do believe that he was inside the garage when he was first shot.

She's sitting in the chair, pulls out the gun, and shoots.

She apparently had tried to shoot at him once, which was the bullet lodged in the tire,

missed.

He then realized what was going on, attempted to run, and was shot in the neck.

Which is why he fell where he had fell in the driveway.

Clearly there was something amiss in the marriage.

Arguably, again,

it was an unhappy marriage, and she wanted for whatever reason to get out of this marriage and to escape.

Despite what they believe is a clear picture of how and why the crime went down, prosecutors aren't convinced a jury will see things the same way.

We all know trials are kind of like wars.

They have uncertain outcomes.

So based upon that, we agreed to a plea.

In June of 2015, Marie Strickland pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

At her sentencing hearing, she begs the judge for leniency and in the process, gives prosecutors a glimpse into the defense she would have put on had the case gone to trial.

She said it was in self-defense because they were arguing and he was chasing her.

Marie's attorneys claim that Marie had reason to fear Michael based on a pattern of abuse that had gone on for years.

What Marie had stated to her psychologist was that, like I said, he was controlling, that if she was gone too long,

that he would text her, that he would follow her on occasions, that he wouldn't let her family members come to the house.

The allegation of abuse only took place

after the murder.

She'd never told her family members that he was abusive.

She had never called the police about it.

I mean, not only had he not been convicted of abusing her, he'd never been arrested for abusing her.

There were no reports of abusing her.

The judge agrees with prosecutors.

The sentence ranged from 15 to 25 years, and the judge rendered a sentence of 21 years.

And that was a good sentence.

She had already spent right at two years in county jail, so that left her with 19 inches of change.

I wish it was longer.

Her sentence was longer.

I don't want anything to do with her.

I think it should have been longer.

At least a little longer, because I think it was premeditated.

With Marie behind bars, friends and family must deal with the carnage left in her wake.

I don't know why she did it.

If you're not happy and you're seeing somebody else, which she was and he was too, why did you go back?

If you're that miserable,

why do you go back?

I've wondered a lot, you know, what would it take to make Marie do this because she was one of us.

She really was.

She's one of us.

And what would it take to push you to do that?

And I'm drawing a blank still today.

The most mysterious aspect of it is not knowing the specific motive.

or even the specific reason that is troubling you.

They would like to know the reason.

They would like to know the specific reason for this.

And they have never received an answer to it.

And, you know, I don't anticipate they ever will.

In June 2015, Marie's brother, Chris Smallin, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact for disposing of the murder weapon.

He received a two-year suspended sentence.

Marie Strickland is set to be released in 2031.

She will be 59 years old.

For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

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