Wife Intimidated : Husband Gets 2-Year Jail Term for Threats

A Sepulveda man was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for threatening his wife to keep her from disclosing that he threatened to kill a judge.

Michael Cartier, 37, will receive credit for time served since his arrest May 29 and will be eligible for parole in about five months. The maximum sentence Cartier could have received was four years.

In imposing the sentence, Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard G. Kolostian referred to claims by the prosecution that Cartier’s erratic behavior can be attributed, in part, to his problems with alcohol.

“You’re not a dummy, but what you don’t see is yourself in the mirror,” Kolostian said. “If you’re sober, it’ll be a whole different life.”

The case began in the spring after San Fernando Municipal Judge Gregg Marcus sentenced Cartier’s wife, Linda, to 45 days in jail for firing five shots at her husband.

Upset by Sentence

Linda Cartier told authorities later that her husband was so upset at the sentence that he threatened to kill Marcus. She said he then threatened to kill her if she told authorities about his comments.

A day after his wife came forward, Cartier was arrested in a pickup truck, in which officers found a shotgun and shells.

Linda Cartier later recanted her story, however, and did not show up for his Van Nuys Superior Court trial in December. Jurors acquitted Cartier of threatening the judge, but found him guilty of dissuading and intimidating a witness--his wife.

The case took another turn when a fellow inmate said that, in January, he heard Cartier again threaten Marcus, as well as Linda Cartier and prosecutor Norman F. Montrose, a deputy district attorney.

Cartier was in jail awaiting sentencing at the time. Ronald Ray Burnette, 25, a burglary defendant, said Cartier vowed to “shoot the old man in the back” if he were sentenced to more than the time served since his arrest.

The issue of Burnette’s statement arose at the sentencing Friday, with Michael J. Phelan, Cartier’s attorney, questioning whether Burnette had sought favorable treatment in exchange for his account of the alleged threats. Burnette said he had not.

‘Feel Threatened’

Montrose told Kolostian: “I do feel threatened by this defendant, and I think society as a whole should, because we can’t really gauge when he’s going to go off the deep end.”

But Kolostian appeared skeptical. He said the claim “isn’t going to affect my sentencing one way or the other.”

Marcus, who attended the sentencing, said he was surprised that Cartier was not given the maximum term or a lengthy, closely monitored program of probation.

Noting that Cartier appeared to smirk at times in the hearing, Marcus said, “From his facial expressions, none of this seemed to bother him.”

Even so, he said he will not be disappointed “if Cartier learns from this experience.”