Ex-Marine is guilty of torturing, killing wife
A retired Marine sergeant was convicted Thursday of torturing and killing his wife after learning she was about to leave him for another man.
James Herbert Speights, 50, was found guilty by a jury in Orange County Superior Court in the 2004 death of 50-year-old Jeselinda Zill. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
“This is a heinous crime,” said Farrah Imami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case. “It’s horrifying what happened to this woman. We’re glad the jury was able to hear the evidence and convict him because clearly he’s dangerous, and the victim deserves justice for what was done to her.”
Prosecutors contended that on Nov. 30, 2004, Speights assembled a series of torture and restraint devices, including chains, ankle cuffs, plastic ties, mace and a 300,000-volt stun gun at the Irvine apartment the couple shared. He then chained Zill to the bed, tortured her with the stun gun and strangled her with a plastic tie, prosecutors said.
Afterward, officials say, the former Marine confessed to a Riverside pastor, who called police. Authorities found Zill’s body on the floor of the bedroom, wrapped in blankets. Speights was discovered semiconscious in an Anaheim parking lot a few miles away; he had taken pills and had drunk antifreeze in an apparent suicide attempt, officials said.
Speights spent three days at Western Medical Center Santa Ana before being turned over to Orange County sheriffs.
“He left burn marks from holding the Taser on her for so long,” Imami said.
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