Man Beats His Wife to Death for Understandable Reason (??)

[Liberal_in_LA]

harsh title. I didn't write it. what do you think?

Man Beats His Wife to Death for Understandable Reason

There are almost no occasions in which beating a spouse to death is an appropriate response. But for one father in New Hampshire who returned to find his children seemingly murdered by their mother, it kind of makes sense.

Last year, Christopher Smeltzer returned home one day to find his 4-year-old son strangled to death, his 7-year-old daughter seemingly also strangled (though she was only unconscious), and the guilty party -- his wife, Mara Pappalardo -- trying to hang herself.

Understandably, the man lost control. And what he did next may make him spend the next decade in prison. He picked up a flashlight and he beat his wife to death. Is it bad that I don't even blame him?

Beating someone to death is never the rational, intelligent way to handle a situation, but Smeltzer wasn't in his rational mind. Other reports claim he was using cocaine, which, admittedly, would make a person a bit more irrational. But even if he were completely sober, can any parent really believe they wouldn't do the same?

http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/127038/man_beats_his_wife_to?quick_picks=1&utm_medium=sem2&utm_source=outbrain&utm_campaign=outbrain&utm_content=outbrain_feb_test

more:

N.H. man says he killed wife at sight of dead child

A New Hampshire man said he “lost his marbles,” killing his wife after seeing she had strangled their 4-year-old son and tried to kill their 7-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.

Christopher Smeltzer pleaded guilty to manslaughter today in a New Hampshire court for killing 39-year-old Mara Pappalardo on Nov. 7, 2010, after he returned to their Auburn, N.H., home and found their son, Mason, dead; their daughter, Mercey, unconscious; and Pappalardo with a rope around her neck, apparently ready to commit suicide, said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young.

Smeltzer, 38, told police he “lost his marbles,” attacking Pappalardo with a flashlight. He said he then tried to kill himself by taking a mixture of drugs, Young said.

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_1005nh_man_says_he_killed_wife_at_sight_of_dead_child

[geckosfeet]

1. An eye for an eye

makes the whole world blind.

[NewJeffCT]

2. It is understandable

however, it is still inexcusable and horrific.

[Drale]

You know Daniel Tosh made a joke

about this exact situation in one of his specials, it was funny at the time but now its horrific.

[Abin Sur]

3. I've never agreed with leniency for being stoned/drunk.

Unless someone forced the drinks down someone's throat, that doesn't reduce their culpability while impaired one iota.

IMHO, of course.

[loyalsister]

4. What about the surviving daughter?

What happened with her mom was bad enough. Traumatizing her with a second image of a parent killing a family member eliminates any justification for me.

[csziggy]

5. I don't care if he was high or could claim temporary insanity

For killing his wife. Leaving the children alone with a woman who had been hospitalized for extreme paranoia is grounds for considering the husband partially responsible for the deaths of those children.

I hope the little girl has a better life than her parents did.

[rocktivity]

6. Sorry, that defense has been tried and failed.

A man in California claimed he killed his wife because she'd killed his daughter -- then proceeded to spend the next few months on the run. The jury didn't buy it.

x(
rocktivity

[TheWraith]

7. Honestly? I would call that extenuating circumstances.

Given the situation, it sounds like what's called for is counseling, not an asshole DA.

[seabeyond]

13. i tend toward your answer. nt

[Desertrose]

8. That's some seriously bad karma.....

for sure.

[Xithras]

9. I don't know what I'd do if my wife killed my kids.

But if I got to her before the police did, it's safe to assume that there would be violence. Fatal violence? I'd hope not, but that's one of those horrific situations where you really never know. I could absolutely kill someone who had just killed one of my children, but when the murderer is your wife... Damn, that's just too hard to call.

Either way, if the daughter corroborates that the mother was the child killer, the father shouldn't be prosecuted for killing her. It was an understandable emotional violent reaction. From deer to dogs to people, reacting violently is a fairly core part of the way mammals respond to our offspring being killed. We shouldn't be destroying his life even further by prosecuting him for reacting the way nature programmed us to.

[XemaSab]

10. Temporary insanity

No jury should convict him.

[Lance_Boyle]

17. this

if postpartum depression/psychosis can be seen as a defense for murder then acute trauma like seeing a murderer killing your children ought to, as well.

[JVS]

28. Yeah, I don't see him getting convicted either.

[Raine]

11. The mother was mentally ill and the father high on cocaine

neither of these people was fit to be caring for the children. :-(

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. totally agree with you.

[FedUpWithIt All]

12. I cannot imagine being in that position and i certainly don't know all the details...

and that makes it tough to comment but the first thought in my mind was a question of the reasoning the mother felt the desire to leave this world WITH her kids. I have read a few instances with women who felt this was the only option after enduring severe abuse for years.

I am in no way suggesting that this is the case HERE but i do hope that they would look deeply into all the circumstances when evaluating this case, especially considering the nightmare the young daughter has already lived through.

[Zanzoobar]

14. It sounds perfectly reasonable to me

But the again, I am wired on meth and swinging a hatchet at the mirror.

[tblue]

15. Oh how sad in every way.

Glad the little girl lived. What the hell was going on in the household? I wonder what made the mom go off like that. I can't say he didn't have a reason. It's not an excuse, but it is a reason.

[Cleita]

18. Really?

Apparently, a very depressed woman decided to exit life and take her children with her. Could it be that HE was the reason for what seems to me a woman who had lost hope?

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Not Enough Facts To Make That Leap

I'll admit it is possible. But, there's no way to make that leap in logic.

[Cleita]

20. No argument there. It is just a supposition

until we know the facts. My reasoning is that if she was trying to kill herself as well, it wasn't because she wanted to get rid of the kids to run off with a new boyfriend like that woman who drowned her children a few years back. Also, the press seem to want to demonize women when they get into trouble and it involves children like they did with that woman in Idaho a few years back saying that she was starving her children. When the real facts came out, it was a sad story of a woman who had become a widow and was unable to feed her children due to her circumstances and the fact that she was suffering from mental deterioration.

[The Straight Story]

21. And yet when a woman kills a man that batters her....

he has it coming.

Women kill their kids - blame the man for making them do it.

Odd how some people see women as weak.

[JuniperLea]

22. That's a different scenario...

And a different syndrome... battered wife syndrome.

Women aren't weak... that's a meme furthered by weak men.

[The Straight Story]

24. Remember the women who drowned her kids in the tub?

She did, so I heard here, because of her husband and how he treated her.

I have no sympathy for people who kill kids - and less for people who don't blame the person who did the killing.

Time and again when things like this happens we hear 'well, some man probably was not nice to her so that is why she did it, poor her'

That to me is what I was talking about when I say people think women are weak.

If a man killed his kid and the wife took him out, would anyone here be saying 'well, it is probably something she did to make him do it'?

[JuniperLea]

26. I was specifically talking about...

A battered woman killing her abusive husband.

I have no pity for anyone who kills another human being. I understand a battered woman snapping, but I can't imagine allowing myself to be in that situation.

Men and women are mean to each other in equal measure, I'm betting.

I get what you're saying... there can be a rush to condemn like this. Still, it opens the conversation when another perspective enters. DUers tend to form opinions on the most minimal amount of facts.

[uppityperson]

23. poor analogy. If a woman killed a man who had killed their kids, that would be an apt analogy

Not someone killing someone else who batters them.

[tnlefty]

25. So he waited until the next day to kill his wife? Really?

Why didn't he call 911 when he happened upon the scene?

The slant that this is justifiable is negated for me because he didn't beat her to death with a flashlight until the following day. I don't care if was using coke or anything else, that scenario should've warranted the call that night, not beating her to death the following morning.

Seems as though he's trying to get away with murder and the first article is helping.

[JI7]

29. maybe it didn't sink in or he got more angry with time

the focus first was probably on the kids and just losing them. but with time the realization that his wife murdered them started to get to him making him more angry.

[JVS]

27. Sounds like a plain old temporary insanity plea.

[lonestarnot]

30. Hard to imagine that reality.

Very sad.