10-Year Term for Holding Wife on Boat

A man accused of keeping his wife imprisoned on a filthy sailboat for more than two decades was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Victor David, 61, was given the maximum sentence for second-degree assault.

Linda David, 52, was left blind and brain-damaged, with her body contorted by broken limbs.

“I find there was no sentence that is proportional to the offenses, and there is certainly no sentence that this court can give [to give] Linda David her life back,” said Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne.

The woman requires around-the-clock care at a nursing facility. A court order permanently bars the husband from contact.

Victor David has denied abusing her, saying she fell frequently.

“There was no way I would have hurt my wife or anybody else for money,” he told the court.

His lawyer, Bryan Hershman, said he is turning the case over to the public defender’s office and did not know whether an appeal is planned.

Linda David was removed from her husband’s decrepit sailboat in 1997 after intervention by a state social worker.

During the 24 years they lived on the boat, she was almost never allowed to leave or see her family, prosecutors said. Her husband kept relatives at bay by threatening them with a gun, they said.

For years, Victor David had collected $500 a month from the state for serving as his wife’s caregiver. Last August, the state agreed to pay Linda David $8.8 million to settle a negligence lawsuit.