Winston-Salem, NC: Man charged in wife's killing dies of illness

By Monte Mitchell

JOURNAL REPORTER

A Wilkes County man charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife in 2008 has died, authorities said yesterday.

Terry Crit Marley, 49, died Sunday night in the emergency room of Grace Hospital in Morganton, said Sheriff Dane Mastin of Wilkes County.

Marley was a patient at Broughton Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital in Morganton, and was taken to Grace Hospital, which is near Broughton. He died of complications from pneumonia, his attorney, Jay Vannoy of North Wilkesboro, said. His funeral was yesterday.

Marley was charged in the death of his estranged wife, Linda Diane Marley, 46. She was found about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 23, 2008, in her yard in the 400 block of Old Lankford Road. She had been shot in the chest and died at the scene.

Terry Marley was beside the body, officers said. He had a severe cut on one of his arms that appeared self inflicted. He was flown to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, and later transferred to Broughton.

Authorities waited over a year to serve the arrest warrant on him while he was at Broughton. He was charged last fall.

Marley had several court appearances scheduled in Wilkes County but didn't attend because he was in the hospital. His next court appearance was April 19.

He was never held in the Wilkes County Jail because of his medical condition.

Linda Marley did not have an active domestic-violence protection order against her husband at the time of her death. A previous order had been dismissed about two months before.

In a complaint filed May 31, 2008, she said that her husband was released from jail on bond, came to her house, and threatened to kill her, shoot her and beat her to death, court records say.

"This goes on every time he gets drunk," she said 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 that he threatened to commit suicide 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 his wife, but the case was dismissed June 9, 2008, when neither showed up for the trial date in District Court.

mmitchell@wsjournal.com

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