Battered-Wife Plea Fails : Woman Given 3 Years in Killing of Boyfriend

A Huntington Beach woman who killed her boyfriend and then argued that she was suffering from battered-wife syndrome at the time was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin acknowledged evidence that Marilyn Starbuck was physically abused but denied her bid for probation Thursday and declared that Starbuck’s battered-wife defense carried limited weight with him.

“I know there was provocation, but this could have been a first-degree murder,” McCartin said. “I provoked it down to a manslaughter. I can only carry this thing so far.”

Prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder verdict against Starbuck, 50, who admitted that she killed Richard Lee (Mack) McBrien on Nov. 18, 1986, at the home they shared for more than 13 years.

But McCartin, who heard the case without a jury, convicted her of voluntary manslaughter--a less serious offense--last October.

In 1981--while Starbuck was on probation for an unrelated embezzlement conviction--she attempted to hire someone to kill McBrien, prosecutors said. Starbuck was arrested, but McBrien successfully requested that the case go no further.

McCartin mentioned Starbuck’s murder-for-hire plan, however, in denying her probation on the voluntary manslaughter conviction.

Starbuck could be paroled by the end of the year, court officials said, because of credit she has earned for jail time served while awaiting trial and because she spent 90 days in state prison undergoing a diagnostic evaluation.

“I really think I’m doing Mrs. Starbuck a favor,” McCartin said. “She’s got to stop seeing herself as the victim and start seeing her responsibility in this thing.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Toohey had sought a six-year prison sentence, and Deputy Public Defender Richard M. Aronson, representing Starbuck, had requested probation for his client.

Outside the courtroom later, Toohey said he was pleased that Starbuck had been refused probation. And Aronson said he was happy that the sentence was not stiffer.

“I think she is the victim in this case,” Aronson said. “But (the sentence) could have been worse.”

McBrien and Starbuck operated a bar in Garden Grove together at the time of the shooting and also owned a typesetting business.

Starbuck told police that McBrien had been upset with her over business matters the day of the shooting and that he told her after hitting her that she “wouldn’t have to worry about working anymore.” Starbuck said she believed then that he meant to kill her, so she grabbed a gun she had hidden in the couch cushions and shot him in the back. McBrien was struck six times.

After the shooting, Starbuck admitted the earlier attempt to have McBrien killed. She said she had suffered serious beatings from McBrien at the time she had attempted to hire a killer. Evidence of McBrien’s physical abuse also came from other witnesses. And, Toohey, the prosecutor, acknowledged that Starbuck had been physically abused.

Starbuck said she shot McBrien, who was 45, after he had completed some push-up exercises, and she thought he was coming at her. But prosecutors argued that the medical evidence showed that McBrien had his back to her when he was shot.

During the trial, McCartin rejected Starbuck’s claim that she acted in self-defense but agreed that she suffered from battered-wife syndrome.

But at Thursday’s sentencing, McCartin said he may have “gotten caught up” in the battered-wife-syndrome theory too much.

“I’ve got to send a message to society; I don’t think you recognize the seriousness of the problem here, Mrs. Starbuck,” the judge said.

After the county Probation Department submitted a report doubting Starbuck’s suitability for a sentence of probation, McCartin sent her to the state Department of Corrections for a diagnostic evaluation, which also resulted in a recommendation against probation.

“Mr. Aronson, I’ve never sent anyone for a 1203 (a diagnostic evaluation) and had them flunk it before,” McCartin said. “I’ve kicked this around seven different ways, and I think (the three-year sentence) is justice, if there is such a word in this case,” McCartin said. “May my next case be easier.”