Wife Gets Five-Year Term For Beating

COOS BAY, Ore. - A South Carolina woman was sentenced to more than five years in prison yesterday for beating her husband with a tire iron while he relaxed at a park south of this coastal town on their honeymoon.

Frannie Snite, 40, was charged with attempted murder in the June 23 beating. Her husband, Hayes Patterson, 41, suffered broken fingers when he tried to fend off the blows.

The two were married on June 19 in Greenville, S.C., and were honeymooning on the Oregon Coast when the attack occurred four days later. Patterson was struck several times in the head while watching the sunset at Shore Acres State Park.

Prosecutors argued that Snite tried to kill her husband for $1.2 million in life insurance.