Man Killed His Wife With Grinder In Self-Defense, Jury Told

Most friends viewed the marriage of Alan and Kathy Dorenbos as "well-balanced, stable, providing a good home to their children," the defense attorney said.

And the couple's 12-year-old said he thought "they were living a very happy life."

Those statements were made yesterday in the second-degree-murder trial of Alan Dorenbos, charged with bludgeoning his wife to death last August on Seafair Sunday in the family garage.

Dorenbos, 40, a computer-sales consultant and Little League president, sat quietly as his attorney, Tony Savage, told the jury his story. Dorenbos killed his wife of many years, with a bench grinder, in self-defense, he said.

They had been arguing, Savage said, over his wife's perception that Dorenbos had undermined her authority with one of the children. "In his opinion," Savage said of Dorenbos, "his wife suffered from a lack of self-esteem."

But this time, Savage said, Kathy Dorenbos, 40, grew angrier than her husband had ever seen her.

"She grabbed the hammer and began advancing on him, shrieking and yelling as loud as she could that she couldn't stand it anymore."

After his wife lay dead on the floor, Savage told the jury, Dorenbos spent most of the night in the garage with her body, "cleaning up and . . . talking to her.

"The next morning he put the body in the trunk . . . and drove down to the police station. Crying and sobbing, he insisted on telling the police what happened."

Hank Corscadden, a King County deputy prosecutor, gave the state's version of the killing. According to Corscadden, Dorenbos hit his wife on the head with a bench grinder in their Woodinville home's three-car garage "some nine to 11 times" during the argument. She'd picked up a hammer, he said, and he'd "lost it."

"He spent the night packing her in the car and cleaning the carnage in the garage," Corscadden told the jury of eight women and four men.

The prosecution contends in court documents that Dorenbos was infatuated with a woman he met through Little League activities.

Dorenbos spoke with the woman shortly before the killing and had previously confessed to her that he and his wife were thinking of separating, as they had at least twice before.

Dorenbos called the woman the morning of Aug. 3 - before he took his wife's body, wrapped in a sleeping bag and pink blanket, to the police station -to tell her what had occurred the night before.

But King County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Bever has warned the prosecution that the unproven theory is inadmissible and the jury should not hear it.

The day Kathy Dorenbos died began calmly, according to witnesses. The couple visited with neighbors and did yardwork around their suburban home.

The prosecution says the trouble started after a phone call Dorenbos made to the other woman. The defense says it began when Kathy grew angry about a mix-up involving which vehicle they'd use to take one of the children to camp.

The couple's three children, ages 18, 15 and 12, sat through the proceedings amid various relatives now caring for them. The 18-year-old said he was present both to find out what had happened and to offer support to his father.

The 18-year-old as well as the 15-year-old were away from home when the killing occurred.

The 12-year-old was playing with friends when prosecutors say the killing occurred between 8 and 10 p.m.

When the boy returned home, he testified, his father seemed much the same as usual and engaged him in a computer game of rummy.

When he asked where his mother was, his father said she had gone for a walk.

The next morning, the boy said, his equipment for baseball camp was all set out for him, instead of being in the garage where it usually was.

Other than that, he said, everything appeared to be normal. When he asked again where his mother was, his father told him she had gone swimming with a friend.