Attorneys revealed Tuesday morning during the start of Todd R. Marjama Jr.’s murder trial that a bullet pierced through the man’s hand and a closed bathroom door before fatally striking his wife.
The defense and prosecution agreed a single bullet was fired, but they’re at odds as to whether Marjama, 29, fired his handgun intentionally.
Deputy Prosecutor Luka Vitasovic argued during his opening statement in Clark County Superior Court that Marjama intentionally shot and killed Amanda Marjama, the mother of their three young children.
“One more thing,” Vitasovic said, as he wrapped up his statement. “Two weeks earlier, (Todd Marjama) had threatened to kill Amanda.”
Defense attorney Jeffrey Barrar said his client was attempting to decock the gun when it discharged. Todd Marjama had readied the gun because he planned to kill himself but decided against it, Barrar said.
The prosecution shed more light on how the alleged murder happened; the state’s version of events stuck close to the evidence initially reported by investigating Clark County sheriff’s deputies.
Marjama was arrested the night of June 28, 2016, after deputies were called to a reported weapons disturbance at the couple’s home in Five Corners.
That night, Amanda Marjama’s brother heard a gunshot from the master bedroom. The brother went to the room and found Todd Marjama sitting on the edge of the bed holding a revolver, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
His left hand was injured, and the brother, thinking Marjama had shot himself, locked the weapon in a gun safe. Another relative entered the room, and they decided to take him to the hospital, the brother later told police.
According to court records, Marjama and the brother were sitting in the brother’s pickup when the other relative came running from the home, yelling that Amanda Marjama had been shot.
Family members said they found Amanda Marjama dead in the master bedroom’s bathroom, according to the affidavit.
Todd Marjama fled the scene but was arrested a few blocks away.
The couple’s relationship had been deteriorating before the night Amanda Marjama died, Vitasovic said. They were going back and forth between splitting up and reconciling. At the same time, Todd Marjama was having an affair and living with the woman, the prosecutor said.
Marjama had heard his wife was speaking to someone on Facebook, and they may have come into their home. When he later learned Amanda Marjama had been untruthful about the contact, he grabbed a gun, and in his words to investigators, “Makes sure it’s loaded,” Vitasovic said.
“Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to shoot myself,” Vitasovic quoted the defendant as allegedly saying at that moment.
Amanda Marjama locked herself in the master bedroom’s bathroom. Standing on the other side of a locked door, Todd Marjama raised the gun to about the height of someone’s head and pulled the trigger. His wife was shot in the head and collapsed into a pool of blood, Vitasovic said.
“In that bathroom with her is their very small child,” Vitasovic said. Marjama was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and assault. The latter charge listed his 2-year-old daughter as the victim.
Police have said all three of the Marjamas’ children were home when the shooting happened.
Barrar, the defense attorney, said he does not dispute the physical evidence collected at the scene. However, he questions the state’s characterization of Todd Marjama’s state of mind and the methods of a bedside interview at the hospital.
The Marjamas met in 2008 and quickly got married. The marriage had issues typical among young families, but the couple were otherwise happy, Barrar said. When Todd Marjama was 19, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and eventually served two tours in Afghanistan. During his second tour, the armored vehicle he’d been riding in was struck by a bullet; Marjama suffered a head injury due to shrapnel.
Marjama spent the next six months recovering from a traumatic brain injury at a hospital in Germany. He was honorably discharged in 2014 and considered 65 percent disabled, Barrar said.
Life outside of military service proved difficult.
“He was having trouble keeping it together,” Barrar said, adding that his relationship with Amanda Marjama deteriorated, and he “sought comfort somewhere else. He didn’t feel good about it.”
When Todd Marjama learned of his wife’s interactions with another man, he got mad at himself, not his wife, the defense argued. He was angry that he wasn’t strong enough to keep the family together, Barrar said.
The husband and father grabbed a loaded gun. He placed it to his head while standing in the living room. In the end, he decided against ending his life. Marjama had cocked the gun, which remained primed as he entered the master bedroom and took a seat on the bed, in front of the bathroom door, Barrar said.
“He stood up from the bed and tried to decock the weapon. His hands were shaking; he wasn’t thinking properly. Fumbling, the gun goes off,” Barrar told the jury.
Once at the hospital, deputies badgered Marjama, according to the defense attorney, with two hours of questioning while he was medicated and in shock. Barrar also recounted for jurors that his client is disabled due to a brain injury.
“He denied killing her. … He got some things wrong but answered all of their questions,” Barrar said, who closed by arguing the prosecutor’s claim of premeditated murder is false.
“You get to decide better,” he said.
The jury trial is expected to continue through the week with testimony from family members, law enforcement and forensic experts.
