Stupidity Doesn't Count

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-05-26 04:25pm

From Charleston DailyMail newspaper, 5/26/04

Jury convicts Ripley welder of bigamy
Jurors rejected argument that man was just ‘stupid'

Marrying his third wife before he divorced his second one has become one of the worst mistakes of Darrell E. Wickline's life.

On Tuesday, a Kanawha County jury dismissed his lawyer's claims that he was just "stupid" and convicted the 47-year-old disabled welder from Ripley of bigamy.

The conviction leaves Wickline facing prison time and the possibility of further criminal prosecution. Assistant Kanawha County Prosecutor Pancho Morris said Wickline may have exposed himself to another bigamy charge when he married his fourth wife before divorcing his third.

Wickline ran into trouble three years ago when he married Nancy Haynes in a Kanawha Circuit courtroom a few yards away from where he was convicted Tuesday.

The problem: When he told Haynes "I do" in August 2001, he was still legally married to Mitzi Wickline, his spouse since 1984.

Although Darrell and Mitzi Wickline separated in 2000, they hadn't finalized their divorce in North Carolina.

So when Mitzi Wickline learned he had married another woman, she went to the police.

Testifying in the last day of his two-day trial, Darrell Wickline said he made a mistake, and thought the North Carolina lawyer he gave $500 to handle his divorce had dissolved his marriage to Mitzi Wickline by Aug. 1, 2001.

He said there was "no way" that he meant to be a bigamist.

His lawyer, public defender Paula Cunningham, said he "is a good old boy who believes, for one reason or another, he's got to marry everybody he dates."

Adding that "he's not collecting wives like some sort of Muslim with four wives or some sort of polygamist in Utah," Cunningham said Darrell Wickline "may be stupid, but he's not a felon."

The stupidity defense didn't work, and it took the jury about an hour to find Wickline guilty of bigamy.

Morris, the prosecutor, said stupidity can never justify committing a crime.

If it did, he said "we would never prosecute anybody, because all you would have to do is come up and say, ‘I'm stupid.'"

Writer Toby Coleman can be reached at 348-4886.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-05-26 04:28pm

I agree he was stupid..........thinking this lie would be believed

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2004-05-26 04:28pm

I guess he was guilty be reason of stupidity. This guy never had any kids I hope.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2004-05-26 04:42pm

What's more frightening is that he met four women stupid enough to marry him.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-05-26 04:57pm

Stupidity, as with ignorance, will never be a defence in a court of law.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-05-26 06:03pm

I agree this guy is a nitwit, but would someone like to explain to me why he should get jail time for what amounts to entering an invalid contract? If he did something like claim spouse benefits or file his taxes jointly, then by all means, convict him of fraud, but why in the world does bigamy carry a jail term?

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-05-26 06:22pm

For the same reason that drunk driving is punished so harshly, I assume. Technically, driving drunk hurts nobody. However, it does greatly increase the liklihood of an accident. Bigamy hurts nobody, but it makes it a lot easier to cheat on taxes.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-05-26 06:28pm

Drunk driving can and often does lead to death and is essentially equilevent to reckless endangerment. The two aren't compared.

WacoKid · Post by **WacoKid** » 2004-05-26 09:58pm

I wonder how the guy felt when his own lawyer called him stupid? That is, of course, if he wasn't in agreement with her (?) to use that defense.