Jurors convict assailant

Kila man found guilty of beating his wife's lover

A Kila man was convicted late Wednesday in the vicious beating of his wife's lover.

The jury of six men and six women returned guilty verdicts on three of the four charges against 35-year-old Robert Reynolds Derby III.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours before unanimously finding Derby guilty of felony aggravated assault, felony criminal endangerment, and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children. He was acquitted of misdemeanor partner assault.

"I don't think there's any doubt the jury returned the right verdict in this case," said Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan. "People need to act appropriately or be held accountable for their actions."

Derby, who was taken into custody after the hearing, sat unmoving as the verdict was read.

District Court Judge Katherine R. Curtis could order Derby to serve as many as 30 years in prison and pay a $100,000 fine at his April 2 sentencing hearing.

Attorney Thane Johnson, of the Kalispell firm Johnson, Berg, McEvoy and Bostock, said he wished jurors had deliberated longer on the criminal endangerment charge, which has a lower standard of intent than assault.

"I think that goes to the heart of my defense," Johnson said. "It's a tough case. I knew that when I took it."

Johnson said he expects to appeal.

According to testimony, sheriff's deputies responded to a home on Spring Hill Drive in Kila just before 11:30 p.m. March 3, 2008, and found the victim with bruised ribs, a broken jaw and a severely injured eye.

The beating, the facts of which Derby never has contested, caused the 29-year-old man to lose sight in his left eye. It later was removed.

But, using a strategy similar to a temporary insanity defense, Johnson argued throughout the trial that the attack was an "involuntary act" committed after his client 'snapped."

Johnson called witnesses Wednesday - including several family friends, a school employee, and Derby's mother - to illustrate the deep emotional bond Derby has with his family.

That emotional bond - coupled with his wife having led him to believe she wanted to reconcile and the victim having told him the affair was over - aggravated the mental break Derby suffered upon discovering the man in bed with his wife, Johnson argued.

"When he came through the door and saw the betrayal … he snapped, he lost it," Johnson said. "That was the testimony and it was pretty consistent throughout."

Johnson called the incident a "classic case of deception, lies and betrayal" and Derby's wife the "epitome" of that behavior.

Corrigan, however, asked the jury to base its verdict on "fact and law," not how much they liked or disliked Derby's wife.

"Return the verdict you know the law and the evidence require, and that's guilty on all four counts," Corrigan said.

Corrigan also argued Derby remembered everything he did during the beating. Derby had testified he recalled nothing between the time he walked in on his wife and the victim and when he called 911.

"It was purposeful, it was knowing, it was voluntary. It was a crime," Corrigan told the jury during his closing argument. "He can claim he doesn't remember as much as he wants … but there should be no question in your minds, ladies and gentlemen, that he did it on purpose."

After the beating, Derby brought his three daughters into the bedroom to view the aftermath - the basis for the endangering-the-welfare-of-children allegations. Derby was acquitted of pushing his wife into a dresser as he burst into the locked bedroom.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com