Ex-Sheriff's Deputy Was Sane When He Raped And Tortured Wife, Her Lover
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who raped his wife and tortured her and her lover was sane at the time of the crimes, an Orange County jury found Thursday.
Robert Avery McClain, who is also a former Marine, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the Sept. 28, 2008, attack. He was convicted Monday of aggravated mayhem, torture, forcible oral copulation, spousal rape, sodomy by force and false imprisonment.
The seven-man, four-woman jury acquitted him of forceful sexual penetration by a foreign object and kidnapping to commit a sex crime.
A sentencing date was not immediately set. He is facing multiple life terms in prison.
McClain, 38, of Irvine, found out his 31-year-old wife was having an affair with a younger man and drove to an apartment complex in Irvine where she worked and confronted her and a 23-year-old man who lived in the complex.
The young man, identified only as Michael H., was stabbed by McClain, who also used the knife to carve his face "like a pumpkin," Deputy District Attorney John Christl said.
McClain's wife, referred to in court only as Joy N., was forced to level a gun at her lover and pull the trigger, but the weapon was unloaded, the prosecutor said.
In his opening statement in April, Christl said McClain subjected his wife to "nine hours of emotional, physical and sexual abuse" and another two hours of repeated beating and pistol-whipping of her boyfriend.
Defense attorney Darren Thompson of the Public Defender's Office claimed McClain snapped when he learned of the affair and became insane.
If jurors had found him insane, McClain would have been committed to a state hospital indefinitely.
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