NEED TO KNOW
- A former fire department battalion chief was found guilty this week of killing his wife
- Kevin West, 52, was convicted of first and second-degree murder in the January 2024 strangling death of 48-year-old Marcelle “Marcy” West
- Prosecutors argued Kevin was having an affair at the time of the murder and intended to leave his wife
A former fire department battalion chief was convicted of killing his wife after a two-week murder trial in Washington state.
Kevin West, 52, who served with the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, was found guilty by a Clark County jury of first and second-degree murder in the 2024 strangling death of his 48-year-old wife Marcelle “Marcy” West on Tuesday, Jan. 20, according to The Columbian, KOIN and KPTV.
On Jan. 8, 2024, Kevin called 911 to report his wife was having a seizure, had stopped breathing and that he had begun performing CPR on her, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. First responders who arrived at the scene performed life-saving measures but she was pronounced dead.
In the days after Marcy died, several people contacted local authorities with “concerns about Kevin and Marcy’s potential relationship issues and worries that her death may not have been natural,” the sheriff’s office said.
Prosecutors argued Kevin was having an affair at the time of the murder and intended to leave his wife. His defense attorneys did not dispute the affair, but argued that Marcy’s recurring headaches caused a seizure that resulted in her death, The Columbian reported from court.
A medical examiner determined that Marcy’s cause of death was asphyxia with blunt trauma to the neck and ruled her manner of death a homicide.
City Of Camas
During the trial, Kevin’s now-fiancée, Cynthia Ward, described their relationship.
She testified that they had known each other for 20 years and had a brief sexual relationship while he was married to Marcy in 2004. She said they reconnected in 2023 and began secretly meeting, despite both being in other relationships, and that their relationship later became serious, The Columbian reported earlier this month.
“Eventually, he was going to leave Marcy, at some point,” Ward testified. “I don’t know when that would have been.”
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Kevin and Marcy shared two adult children, according to KOIN. Marcy’s friend, Wendy Chun, told the outlet that she feels like “justice was served.”
“There were other ways that he could have handled the situation instead of murdering Marcy,” Chun said. “And I feel really bad for the kids … they lose both parents in this situation.”
Kevin is expected to be sentenced on Feb. 27.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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