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PROVO — An Orem man who admitted to assaulting his girlfriend's 27-year-old son with a metal pipe, which charges say led to the son's death two months later, was sentenced to jail and probation in 4th District Court on Monday.
Preston Marsh, 41, was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison for assault, a second-degree felony, and zero to five years in prison for criminal homicide by assault, a third-degree felony. The prison sentence, however, was suspended in favor of 665 days in jail, of which he has already served all but 44, and 60 months of probation.
Marsh pleaded guilty to assault, and no contest to criminal homicide.
A victim coordinator read statements from four people who knew Jensen Harvey in the two months between the beating and when he died. Julia Thomas, deputy Utah County attorney, told the judge that the victim's girlfriend wanted the letters to be read in court.
Cynthia Sueldo said her "soulmate" and boyfriend was not just hit by a metal pipe but was beaten by Marsh on Aug. 22, 2021. Sueldo said he was not the same after that night, and more bruising appeared on his body over the next few days. She questioned why Marsh did it, and said now she will never get "the happily ever after" she dreamed of.
In addition to the physical pain, she said after the assault Harvey dealt with constant frustration, anxiousness, paranoia and post-traumatic stress disorder. She talked about finding him crying and cutting his hair because he thought it might help relieve the tension in his head.
Charges said the assault caused a minor brain bleed that led to the strokes which ultimately caused Harvey's death on Nov. 1, 2021.
Each of the four letters read at the sentencing said the justice system had failed their friend; they said the sentence was disrespectful to Harvey and letting Marsh walk free was not just.
"The truth deserved to be heard — the prosecutors have made a mistake," Sueldo said.
Thomas explained that although prosecutors could prove that Marsh's attack on Harvey was not provoked and that Marsh took Harvey's life in the sense that he would not be the same, medical experts were not able to sufficiently prove that the attack caused his death a few months later.
"There can be no justice for Jensen Harvey, because our system is more concerned with the rights of the defendant than with the rights of the victims," she said.
She said video shows Marsh was not acting in self-defense, and that he would have known using a metal bar to hit someone could cause death.
Marsh chose to remain silent at his sentencing, and his attorney, Richard Gale, said only a few words.
Judge Robert Lund emphasized to those who wrote letters that the sentence was not for murder because Marsh was not convicted of murder.
He said comments in the pre-sentence report from Marsh and Harvey's mother, Katie Marsh, that it was self-defense is a "false narrative." The judge said Katie Marsh shaking her head at him while he made that comment was "extremely disturbing."
He said Preston Marsh "assaulted a highly vulnerable person, in a debilitated state, with a deadly weapon" and emphasized that he was the aggressor.
"Your actions were wholly unjustified," Lund told Marsh.
Lund determined in a justification hearing on Sept. 1, 2022, that Marsh did not act in self-defense.
