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Catherine Mehaffey Shelton's husband got convicted of murder. And the jury believed Shelton was with him.

A A A Comments By Rose Farley Thursday, Nov 30 2000

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Marisa set up her own immigration legal service and started publishing a Spanish-language newspaper called Gente 2000, which she used as an advertising vehicle to bring in clients. Attorney Young attacked Marisa's testimony on several fronts, pointing out that she wasn't even a lawyer and that her business left many illegal immigrant clients complaining that she took thousands of dollars without delivering promised services.

However, Marisa testified that Catherine asked her to come back to the firm and Marisa refused. Marisa said she told her she was going to call Bill Parker, the private investigator with whom Catherine had an affair, and tell him about Catherine's plan to move into his Copper Canyon neighborhood.

Catherine Mehaffey Shelton: Phone records show she was at home, talking to her mother when the murder occurred miles away.

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"She said I wouldn't live to see Christmas," Marisa said.

On November 16 the jury returned with the maximum term of life in prison against Clint.

Marisa says she is amazed that Catherine is still on the loose. Now Marisa is living under "protection" and waiting for the day that Catherine is behind bars.

"I will have no rest until they arrest Catherine, because she was there that night. No rest," Marisa says. She pauses for a moment, then adds a final thought. "The biggest mistake they made was not killing me that night."

Marisa did not pass up the opportunity in court to make a victim's impact statement after Clint got the life prison term. In that statement, she calls Clint a monster. She tells him she will be at his parole hearing 30 years from now to argue that he should not be set free. Finally, she tells him what some people have been speculating about for months.

"Catherine," she says, "has thrown you away."

Whether that's true remains to be answered.

Perhaps it never will be.

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