He is accused of killing her in '08 in North Wilkesboro
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By Monte Mitchell
JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: November 10, 2009
NORTH WILKESBORO - A man who authorities named more than a year ago as a suspect in the shooting death of his estranged wife on Aug. 23, 2008, has been charged with her murder, according to court documents.
Terry Crit Marley, 49, was to appear yesterday on a felony murder charge in Wilkes County Superior Court, but his attorney told the judge that Marley was in Broughton Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital in Morganton. The case was continued until January.
It's been an open secret in Wilkes County that Marley has been in Broughton, but authorities have not previously confirmed that fact because of patient-confidentiality laws.
Sheriff's officials have maintained for more than a year that they knew where Marley was and could arrest him when needed. Although a warrant was issued on Sept. 2, 2008, it was not served until this past Sept. 10, according to court records.
Marley is charged in connection with the death of his estranged wife, Linda Diane Marley, 46. She was found about 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2008, a Saturday, in her yard in the 400 block of Old Lankford Road. She had been shot in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Terry Marley was beside her body, officers said, and had a severe cut on one of his arms, a cut that appeared to be self-inflicted. He was airlifted to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, and later transferred to Broughton.
Linda Marley did not have an active domestic-violence protection order against her husband at the time of her death, but a previous order had been dismissed about two months before she was killed.
In a complaint filed May 31, 2008, Linda Marley said that her husband had been released from jail on bond, then came to her home and threatened to kill her, shoot her and beat her to death, according to court records.
"This goes on every time he gets drunk," she wrote in her complaint. "In the past he has beat me, stoned me, choked me, hit me with a plate that cut my arm open. Has pulled guns and knives on me."
She said he had threatened to kill himself if she didn't stay with him.
A judge granted a temporary domestic protection order that required Terry Marley to stay at least 250 feet from her, but the case was dismissed June 9, 2008, when neither showed up for the trial date in District Court.
After her death, friends of Linda Marley said that she was terrified of her estranged husband.
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
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