Cynthia Roth Spilled Marriage Frustration In Note -- Entries Include 44 Things Husband `Hated' About Her

"Randy does not `love' Cindy. Randy hates Cindy."

So begins an angry, frustrated note apparently written by Cynthia Baumgartner Roth sometime before she drowned last summer.

It is potentially the most damaging piece of evidence introduced against Randy Roth, accused of murdering her.

King County police Detective Sue Peters found the torn four-page note crumpled in a ball in the back of a drawer Roth kept at his Woodinville home.

Admitted into evidence yesterday, the note includes 44 different entries on things she claimed her husband hated about her, ranging from her "ugly toes" to her "dolls in every room," that she "drinks coffee" to her efforts to "help or volunteer anywhere."

Roth, 37, is accused in King County Superior Court with first-degree murder. Prosecutors contend he drowned Cynthia last July 23 in crowded Lake Sammamish so he could collect $385,000 in insurance.

The couple had been married less than a year after a torrid three-month courtship.

Although Cynthia's friends testified she was unhappy with the marriage, Roth testified this week they got along fine and he intended to spend the rest of his life with her.

He also said the raft excursion on Lake Sammamish was her idea and intended as a romantic outing.

But the note, which Cynthia's mother identified as her daughter's handwriting, clearly gives another picture: One of a woman feeling degraded and controlled.

One brief passage of the note reads:

"Randy hates the swamp that Cindy made him move to.

"Randy hates Cindy's house.

"Randy hates Cindy's things

"Randy hates Cindy's money.

"Randy hates Cindy's independent nature."

Cynthia also complained that Randy insisted on going shopping often and alone, but resented her for spending too much money and buying groceries too often.

Defense attorney George Cody objected to introducing the note, claiming that it was hearsay, but Judge Frank Sullivan admitted it.

Peters said the note was found when police searched Roth's house in October.

It was found in a drawer that also contained newspaper clippings of his second wife's fatal fall off Beacon Rock in Southwest Washington in 1981, cremation receipts and other personal papers.

Peters was one of several rebuttal witnesses the prosecution called yesterday who cast doubt on Roth's credibility.

Roth testified for five days and answered prosecution cross-examination questions for three.

He repeatedly rebutted claims made against him and said he had planned to spend the rest of his life with Cynthia, 34.

Prosecutors also called back Donna Clift, Roth's third wife, who also testified about his domination.

Clift sat with her arms folded across her chest and glared at Roth as she angrily rebutted his testimony that their marriage ended abruptly because she bought and used marijuana, drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes.

Roth simply took notes and never looked up at her.

Clift said she could not have purchased marijuana as Roth testified.

"I never even had access to my money when we were together," she said.

Clift married Roth just a few months after meeting him, but their marriage lasted only three months. She said she felt he may have tried to sink a raft they were using to float down the Skykomish River.

Prosecutors also introduced Juanita Gates, who works in the service office at Bill Pierre Ford in Bellevue. She testified that Roth asked a female office-worker at the dealership to go to Reno with him the weekend after his wife drowned.

Roth claimed he tried to give Stacey Reese both tickets because he couldn't get a refund, but Gates said she was sitting right next to Reese when she got Roth's call.

Gates testified Reese said, upon hanging up, "Oh my God, Randy just asked me to go to Reno."

Roth began hanging around the office area as soon as Reese was hired and would never admit he was married, Gates said. Reese had said Roth called her four times in the week following his wife's death.

The detective also testified that Roth claimed Cynthia told him she had no will and her close friend, Lori Baker, was present during the conversation.

Baker was made executor of the will in 1985.

Defense attorneys seemed to make some dent in prosecutors' accusations that Roth called a man the night of Cynthia's death to ask if his red Corvette was for sale.

Roth testified he was simply returning the man's phone call left on his answering machine. Phone records, read into evidence by attorney John Muenster, showed the man did call Roth that night.

The man said he was unsure of the call's details, could not be sure if he talked to Roth, but said he thought he talked to someone that night about the Corvette.

Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their rebuttal case Monday.