Boy Scout Leader Gets 50 Years Prison for Wife’s Murder
Just days ago, Andrew Farley Jr. was sentenced to spend many decades behind bars for the murder of his wife. Following a guilty conviction by a Genesee County Circuit Court Jury for second degree murder, the Judge then exceeded the state’s sentencing guidelines on the grounds that Farley’s crime was too brutal for the recommended sentence.
Farley, a 44-year-old teacher and Boy Scout leader in the Grand Blanc area, was convicted of clubbing his wife with a flashlight in their bathroom at home, and then stabbing her six times with a military style knife. After the stabbing, her dragged her body into the couple’s bedroom and then consumed a number of pills. He also started a fire in the fireplace, and severed the home’s gas line. Farley’s plan, it seems, plan was to kill her first and then kill himself.
The crime was discovered when the parents of friend’s of Farley’s wife’s foster son stopped by the house. After police arrested Farley they discovered a number of videos on his phone that he had made after having stabbed his wife. The videos reveal that Farley’s wife was having an affair with a male coworker, and she planned to divorce Farley in order to be with her new lover.
Farley was charged with open murder, which meant that the jury was required to decide if he should face first or second degree murder charges. During the trial his defense attorney argued that the crime had been committed in the heat of passion, and that it was not premeditated. Thus, he claimed, first degree murder should not be an option at all.
But the prosecution disagreed. Farley had previously attempted to attack his wife’s lover with a crowbar, but was unsuccessful. During one of his “selfie” videos, made directly after his wife was stabbed, Farley also says, “I wanted to kill him (the lover), and I wanted to kill her.” From this the prosecution deduced that he had planned the attack.
The jury found him guilty of second degree murder, which state sentencing guidelines suggest should receive a penalty of 13.5 years as a minimum. But Judge Archie Hayman disagreed, stating that the evidence revealed that Farley had “planned and schemed” his wife’s death, a death that Hayman described as “brutal.”
Farley was sentenced to 50 to almost 71 years in prison. His attorney called the sentence “ludicrous” and said that he intended to take it up with the court of appeals. But if he is unsuccessful, Farley will likely spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.