Marietta man gets 20 years in wife’s stabbing

He said she assaulted him by flaunting an affair.

A Marietta man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for stabbing his wife and setting a fire related to the incident, Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds announced Friday.

Juan F. Espinal, 57, admitted Friday to stabbing his wife at least six times Dec. 20, 2013 at their Winterset Parkway apartment and then driving to another family’s residence and setting his car on fire there. The fire spread to the home, doing significant damage, Reynolds said.

Espinal, a legal resident from the Dominican Republic, was later found injured near Interstate 575 at Chastain Road, where he had apparently thrown himself off of a bridge, Reynolds said.

He told the court Friday he had been pushed to the point of attacking his wife of 15 years because she had recently started insulting him and was flaunting an affair in his face.

That excuse found little support from the prosecutor, who noted the victim was asleep in her bed when Espinal stabbed her.

“We are lucky not to be here on murder charges,” Theresa Schiefer, the assistant district attorney, told the court. “It’s a shock that she survived those injuries. He has not taken responsibility for his actions, and he needs to sit in prison for the rest of his life.”

Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster sentenced Espinal to 20 years in prison.