A Maricopa County Superior Court jury has found Gilbert Army Reserve Attorney guilty of murdering his wife.
Mark-Eric Ponsati claimed that his wife and mother of children, Sherri Ponsati, slipped on the toilet one night in 2017 and died.
Prosecutors believed Pongsati tried to make the murder look like an accident.
what happened?
Death Night: Police found Sherry Ponsati lying in the bathroom on September 7, 2017, bleeding from a head wound and without a heartbeat.
- At approximately 9:50 pm, Pongsati called 911 to report that his wife was not moving.
- He told Dispatch that they had taken a bath together, took a nap, and when he returned to look for her, found her bleeding on the ground.
- In a recording played in court, he is heard telling them he knows she is dead. “She’s purple. I know what death looks like. I’m an Afghan war veteran,” he told Dispatch.
- He told them it looked like she had slipped and hit the back of her head on the bathtub ledge.
- Pongsati told them that her two children were sleeping in her room.
- Firefighters took Shelley to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
- Police found a gallon jug of soap toppled over, making the floor slippery.
- While calling close relatives, detectives were told that their marriage was difficult.
- A few days later, the coroner found that Sherri had multiple injuries not only to the back of her head, but also to her face, back, and ribs.
Police arrested Pongsati on charges of second-degree murder a week after the night of Sherry’s death.
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in court
The prosecution argued that: On January 23, Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Joshua Grimsman launched a lawsuit against Ponsati, alleging that the evidence depicted photographs of her husband who attempted to cover up his wife’s murder death.
- Shelley’s injuries indicated multiple injuries to her body, consistent with the violent shaking.
- A close friend of Sherry claimed that their marriage was falling apart.
- The soap jug which caused the bathroom floor to be slippery was almost completely empty.
- It is doubtful that Pongsati hired a service to clean the house the next morning.
- Ponsati tried to move to Kentucky after Shelley’s death.
Ponsati argued that: Ponsati’s attorney, Thomas Henager, argued that Shelley’s death was tragic and bizarre but accidental.
“The evidence in this case shows that an innocent man can appear guilty and be prosecuted for crimes like this,” he told the court.
- The defense argued that Shelley’s multiple injuries were due to her multiple falls.
- Something could have happened in the bathroom, but the police wanted them to believe that she hit her head once or that Pongsati had killed her.
- They admitted that they had problems with their marriage, but they had no intention of trying to stop someone from getting married.
- A move to Kentucky was planned before his death.
verdict: Four days later, a jury found Ponsati guilty of second-degree murder.
On April 14, Pongsati will face 10 to 25 years in prison if sentenced.
why am i writing this
This report follows the crimes The Republic began covering in 2017 and is part of our commitment to telling the story from start to finish.
Contact Crime Reporter Miguel Torres Miguel.Torres@arizonarepublic.com or on twitter @TheMiguel Torres.
