Spokane Valley man who cut out wife’s tongue pleads guilty eight years after attack

A 68-year-old man who beat his wife with a metal rod and cut out her tongue pleaded guilty last week to the near-fatal assault eight years after it happened at the couple’s Spokane Valley home.

On October 5, 2016, deputies found Ludmila Pavlik bloodied and badly beaten in the apartment, according to court documents. They arrested her husband, Volodymyr Pavlik, who called 911 and later told a detective that his wife had used her “Satan’s tongue” to curse him for Satan, court records state.

After eight years in prison, undergoing mental health evaluations and treatment at Eastern State Hospital, cycling through several attorneys and initially pleading not guilty due to insanity last month, the Ukrainian refugee pleaded guilty Oct. 24 to first-degree murder. violence – domestic violence.

Deputy Spokane County District Attorney Preston McCollum said he believed the eight years Volodymyr Pavlik spent in custody, either in jail or at the hospital, was the longest inmate in the Spokane County Jail before the case was resolved.

The prosecution and defense parties agreed to 117 months of imprisonment, that is, almost 10 years. The sentence included 93 months, the low end of the standard sentencing range, and 24 months for the deadly weapon enhancement.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Julie McKay followed a joint recommendation and sentenced Volodymyr Pavlik, who needed a Russian interpreter, after his guilty plea.

Volodymyr Pavlik, who has not previously been involved in crimes, will be credited with the time served, that is, he has less than two years left behind bars.

McCollum said Lyudmila Pavlik, who attended the plea and sentencing hearing via Zoom, wanted the charges against her husband dismissed.

“This was too brutal and too horrific a crime not to proceed,” McCollum said of prosecutors’ decision to pursue the case.

McKay also imposed a lifetime restraining order between the pair, which McCollum said Lyudmila Pavlik did not agree to.

She has difficulty speaking because the man ripped out half of her tongue with pliers during the attack, McCollam said. Court records state that she had multiple skull fractures, arterial bleeding in her head and neck and a hematoma in her skull, among other injuries.

McCollum said she claimed to have no recollection of the attack.

According to McCollam, the length of the case was hampered by delays related to COVID-19, several attorneys participating in the case and not working, and ongoing mental and health issues with Volodymyr Pavlik.

Volodymyr Pavlik was transported from the Spokane County Jail to Eastern State Hospital and back for treatment and evaluation of mental illness.

His mental state has been debated since his arrest declared incompetent and incompetent to stand trial at various times over the past eight years.

Shortly after his arrest, he was found incompetent to stand trial after he blamed demons and voices for telling him to kill his wife.

He was repeatedly treated at the Eastern State Hospital, where the doctor diagnosed him with “passive-aggressive personality traits,” but in 2018 he said that Volodymyr Pavlik does not suffer from psychosis, the documents state.

Then in 2018, he was found competent and returned to prison.

In 2019, another competency assessment found him incompetent to stand trial.

Volodymyr Pavlik returned to the Eastern State Hospital and was again found competent to stand trial in 2020.

In 2022, a report from the Eastern State Hospital stated that doctors believed that Volodymyr Pavlik “appeared to be trying to distort his true abilities and functioning.”

Volodymyr Pavlik participated in programs at the Eastern State Hospital, assisted in his medical care and denied mental illness, the report said. However, Volodymyr Pavlik gave vague answers to questions about the legal or competence process.

Last year, the court recognized him as competent.

McCollum said it was one of the most serious and complex crimes he had dealt with in his career. The law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene were deeply shocked by Lyudmila Pavlik’s severe injuries.

According to court records, Volodymyr Pavlik must undergo a mental health examination and complete the recommended treatment. After his release from prison, he will serve three years of probation.