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IRON MOUNTAIN -- A Bark River man was convicted on multiple charges after being accused of severely beating his ex-wife during an attack at her Breitung Township home in August 2022.
In less than three hours of deliberations, a jury found 62-year-old Lloyd Travis Jarvi guilty of assault with the intent to murder, home invasion in the first degree and unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle.
Jarvi was not in the Dickinson County courtroom for the verdict, having refused Wednesday to further take part in the trial or work with his attorney; he appeared for the rest of the proceedings from the jail via Zoom.
Circuit Judge Mary Barglind set sentencing for Dec. 18, when Jarvi could face up to life in prison. A fourth charge -- habitual offender-fourth offense -- is expected to be added that day and will not require a jury trial.
The trial opened Monday in Dickinson County Circuit Court. Jurors were told that Jarvi and his ex-wife had been divorced for two years and though at times their relationship seemed amicable, it deteriorated in the months before the attack.
Jarvi was on the verge of being jailed after he stopped making monthly settlement payments, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristin Kass said in her opening statement Monday.
On the night of Aug. 2, 2022, Jarvi was accused of breaking into his ex-wife's home while she slept in a downstairs bedroom -- her 26-year-old son was asleep upstairs -- and repeatedly striking her in the head, face and body with a weapon. He then took his ex-wife's cash and car keys and fled to Wisconsin, where he was arrested three days later.
Defense Attorney Daniel Jaspen said in his opening statements his client had sought money from his ex-wife so he could disappear and he only intended to render her unconscious, not kill her.
Marianne Jarvi testified Tuesday she worked in maintenance full-time at the Island Resort & Casino, where Lloyd Jarvi was employed as well. While they divorced in 2019, they remained on pleasant enough terms that for a time they traveled together to work until he moved to Bark River.
But that relationship grew strained over money he owed her, she said. Lloyd Jarvi never attended a show-cause hearing on the missed payments and had left several angry voice mails in April 2022.
He had been barred from entering Marianne Jarvi's house for several months before the attack.
On that night, Marianne Jarvi said she remembers waking to a voice and a face, though she can't recall what was said, then being struck on the head with blows that sounded like a baseball bat.
The next thing she said she remembers is someone at the hospital removing her jewelry, then waking up at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa, Wis. She'd spend 12 days there and another 13 days in a rehabilitation hospital, where she had to learn to walk again, she testified.
She ultimately missed 14 weeks from work, Marianne Jarvi said, and has lingering complications from the attack. Her right eye had significant damage and she needs to wear a special contact to prevent too much light from coming in. She has an indentation in her skull.
Even with several months of occupational therapy, she still is unable to continue the construction work she was doing on her house before the attack, she said.
Dr. James McCarty was the first to see Marianne Jarvi in the Marshfield Medical Center-Dickinson emergency room. Her injuries were significant and numerous, McCarty testified, including six skull fractures, bleeding in the brain, life-threatening hemorrhaging and bleeding in the liver.
McCarty said the injuries were consistent with multiple blows from a baseball bat.
Marianne Jarvi was taken by helicopter to St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, Wis., then transferred to Froedtert Hospital, McCarty said.
The prosecution team played a video of an interrogation with Jarvi after his arrest Aug. 5, 2022, in Sheboygan Falls, Wis. He claimed his ex-wife was jealous of his new relationship and he quit making payments to her after she attacked his new girlfriend.
Jarvi said he received four days' notice to pay the money he owed or go to jail and that he went to Marianne Jarvi's to get $800 and her car keys so he could leave the area. Lloyd Jarvi said his ex-wife became angry with him, and he only hit her to quiet her down. When the detective asked Lloyd Jarvi how many times he struck her, he responded, "too many."
The only witness Jarvi's attorney planned to call was Jarvi himself; he ultimately did not testify.
During his closing arguments, Jaspen told the jury he did not understand his client's behavior and did not think it was a wise decision for Jarvi to withdraw from the trial but that shouldn't distract them from determining if prosecution had made their case, which Jaspen maintained had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt for attempted murder.
Among other felonies, Jarvi was convicted of armed robbery in Marquette County in 1985, of prison escape in Schoolcraft County in 1990 and firearms larceny in Dickinson County in 2011, previous court records show.