A prosecutor on Wednesday laid out the volatile moments leading up to Todd Marjama Jr. fatally shooting his wife at their home in Five Corners.
Marjama — who at the time was dating and living with another woman — was frustrated that his wife, Amanda Marjama, had refused to sign divorce papers. He was obsessed over her talking to another man and enraged to find out that man had been over at the house, Deputy Prosecutor Luka Vitasovic said during closing arguments in Todd Marjama’s murder trial.
Marjama, 29, retrieved a handgun, made sure it was loaded, cocked the hammer and pointed it at his head. He threatened to kill himself if his wife didn’t tell the truth.
“It’s not just a scare tactic,” Vitasovic said, arguing that Marjama was manipulating his wife.
When that didn’t work, he followed her to the master bedroom’s bathroom, where she had locked herself inside, Vitasovic said, and threatened to break down the door.
Marjama then intentionally shot through the palm of his left hand and through the closed bathroom door, knowing his wife was on the other side, Vitasovic argued.
“In his own words: ‘You don’t point that gun … unless you’re going to use it,’ ” Vitasovic said. “He was angry. He was jealous, and he used it.”
Marjama has been in custody since the day of the shooting, June 28, 2016. His trial in Clark County Superior Court began more than a week ago. He took the stand Tuesday.
Marjama’s attorney, Katie Kauffman, called the prosecution’s theory something you’d see in a heist-type movie and argued the shooting was a tragic accident.
Kauffman, of Vancouver Defenders, told the jury during her closing argument that Marjama had no way of knowing where his wife was standing behind a closed door to be able to shoot her in the head. And the physical evidence doesn’t amount to premeditated murder, she argued.
She said Marjama is a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He was injured in Afghanistan and wasn’t the same when he returned home. The couple’s marriage soon fell apart.
Although they lived separately, Marjama would occasionally come over to the house, and on the day of the shooting, everything had started out normal. He came over to take their daughter to school, hung out throughout the day and started to cook dinner, Kauffman said.
But then he learned that another man had been over. He became angry, she said, because they had agreed they wouldn’t bring other people around the kids. Upset over their deteriorating relationship, he grabbed the gun and pointed it at his head. He was suicidal and had contemplated suicide in the past, Kauffman said.
Amanda Marjama told him to put the gun away and walked down the hallway. She went into the bathroom. They argued through the door, and he threatened to break it down if she didn’t come out. She told him, “One sec.” Thinking she’s going to come out and they are going to talk, Todd Marjama decided to put the gun away. He tried to decock it, and it went off — the bullet pierced his hand, Kauffman told the jury.
Marjama had no idea his wife had been shot, Kauffman said, and he started to yell that she made him shoot himself.
Family members who heard the gunshot rushed to the bedroom and tended to his injury. They had gotten him to a pickup to drive him to the hospital, when angry family members came outside and started to threaten to beat him up. He fled. He was disoriented and went to a neighbor’s house, Kauffman said.
Then, from the time he was arrested, he was cooperative and forthcoming with investigators. He didn’t learn Amanda Marjama had been shot until he spoke with detectives, Kauffman said. Todd Marjama believed he had been arrested for discharging the gun inside the house, where others were present, she said.
Vitasovic argued there was no way Marjama didn’t know he shot his wife. Family members who discovered her body were yelling that he shot and killed her before he fled.
He further questioned what the odds are that during a heated argument with his wife, in which he grabbed a gun and pointed it at the door she’s behind, that the firearm misfires, and she’s shot in the head?
“It’s not a coincidence. The reason it occurred was not because of the alignment of the stars; it’s because it was deliberate,” he told the jury.
The case went to the jury shortly before 5:30 p.m. They will return Thursday morning to begin deliberating.
Although Marjama is charged with first-degree murder, the jury has the option to consider first- and second-degree manslaughter as lesser alternatives.
