A jury has found a U.K. citizen not guilty of assault charges in connection to allegations he strangled his pregnant wife with a belt in Boothbay Harbor in December 2013.
Mark A. Jolleys, 33, stood trial in Lincoln County Superior Court in Wiscasset Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 16 and 17.
The jury returned the verdict at about 4:15 p.m. Thursday after deliberating for about two hours, Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Liberman said.
The wife and key witness was a no-show for the trial. “We could not locate her,” Liberman said. “We had subpoenas out for her for quite some time.”
The woman called 911 to report the incident and described the alleged assault in a detailed written statement, but later recanted.
“She had recanted to our office in writing and in other ways on more than one occasion, so we weren’t completely surprised that she made herself scarce for the trial,” Liberman said. “All the same, it was a serious enough case where we had to take our best shot.”
Liberman said it is difficult to say with certainty whether the woman’s absence changed the outcome of the trial.
“I think that these cases are always difficult when you have an uncooperative victim who is on the stand saying it didn’t happen or is not on the stand at all,” Liberman said.
Jolleys, meanwhile, is “very relieved that it’s all over. It’s been a long time,” said Lisa Whittier, his attorney. He now plans to return to England.
“I was very pleased with the verdict because my client was innocent and I believed in his innocence from the very start,” Whittier said.
Jolleys has maintained his innocence from the beginning, when he told police he acted in self-defense, Whittier said.
“The jury found that Mr. Jolleys used a reasonable degree of force, no more than necessary to protect himself,” she said. He “absolutely disputes” the use of a belt in the incident.
Whittier said she does not know if Jolleys’ wife’s absence at the trial affected the outcome. She believes the woman is in Florida.
Jolleys did testify “and he testified very well,” Whittier said. “The jury believed him.”
Liberman, the prosecutor, presented other evidence to the jury, including the wife’s 911 call, photographs of her injuries, and the testimony of a physician and a police officer regarding their observations of her injuries and her statements to them.
Liberman argued that the call, the pictures, and the testimony supported the woman’s initial account of the incident.
Jolleys and his wife were living in a Townsend Avenue apartment after their September 2013 wedding. The couple was having an argument, and the woman was in the process of moving out the night of Dec. 26, 2013, according to the woman’s victim statement.
Jolleys allegedly told the woman “‘You can leave now, or I’m going to kill you. It’s your choice,'” the woman said in the statement.
Shortly thereafter, Jolleys removed her belt and wrapped it around her neck, she said. “He tightened it as tight as it would go,” she said. “I kept clawing my fingers to protect my neck.”
“I finally got the belt off my neck,” she said, when he tightened it around her arm. “He dragged me around the room, from the bed to the floor and to the front door,” she said.
“I was screaming so loud that I think it scared him and he let me out of the belt,” she said. She fled the apartment and ran to an apartment next door, where she called police.
Jolleys was arrested the next day and remained at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset for almost a month. A friend posted $10,000 cash bail Jan. 23, and Jolleys has lived in Wiscasset under strict bail conditions since.
He surrendered his passport upon release and has had to abide by a sunset-to-sunrise curfew, among other conditions.
Jolleys’ wife later told the district attorney’s office she fabricated the incident and wanted to reconcile with Jolleys, according to a motion filed by Whittier.
A Lincoln County grand jury indicted Jolleys May 6 on charges of class B aggravated assault, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and class D domestic violence assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail.
“I think this was a case where myself and the law enforcement involved – we all did the best that we could to put this case forward,” Liberman said. “We all felt strongly that this was a case that needed to go to a jury and we all knew what we were up against – that this was a case we would have to try without a victim – but we felt it was worth a try here because of the severity of the incident.”
“As an office, we don’t go forward with charges against people unless we’re convinced that they committed the crime,” Liberman said.
Liberman and Whittier said they do not know whether Jolleys intends to reconcile with his wife. She was two months into her pregnancy at the time of the incident, and has since given birth to their child.