Jason Allen Garlinghouse was sentenced Friday morning, June 15, to a minimum of 25 years in prison for murdering his estranged wife Sparki Garlinghouse last year.
Judge David E. Delsman said Garlinghouse can file for parole after 25 years, with credit for time served. If released, he would remain on post-prison supervision for life.
Following a five-day trial, after about four hours of deliberations on May 22, a jury found Garlinghouse guilty of murdering Sparki Garlinghouse, 35, on Feb. 14, 2017.
“Sparki loved life,” said Theda Knighten, reading statements by Mrs. Garlinghouse’s friends and family. As a child, she had dreams and loved debate. “She stood up for right. She always stood up for the underdog.”
Knighten, who described herself as somewhat of a second mother to Sparki, explained the tragedy faced by her children: “They will have to live with the brutal truth that their dad murdered their mother the rest of their lives. You and your children are and always will be loved.”
“I called her Sparkles,” Knighten read from another statement. “”Her giggle was sweet, sincere and infectious.”
She read further, “Sparki, I’m so sorry you were taken away from your loving children.”
Now, “family and friends can feel justice is served,” but “Valentine’s Day will never be celebrated again.”
Another hoped those who “trashed Sparki” feel like jerks following his conviction for murder.
“My dear friend, robbed of her future, robbed of her kid’s future,” another said. She catches a glimpse of someone and must reminder herself, “that’s not Sparki. It’ll never be Sparki.”
She loved her children more than anything, said others, and she was an amazing woman and mother.
“Ugly, senseless, evil and wretched. We will never be the same without her.”
Prior to sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Linn County Deputy District Attorney Keith Stein told the judge, “the jury quickly and deliberately agreed that Mr. Garlinghouse was guilty of murdering Mrs. Garlinghouse.”
Stein said he did something he hasn’t done before,: write a letter to the parole board 25 years from now. In it, he recites for a future parole hearing the facts of the case, describing how Garlinghouse carefully set and sprang a trap for his estranged wife.
He called Garlinghouse a “calculating, cold-blooded killer,” who “deprived two small children of their mother.”
“He killed Mrs. Garlinghouse when she was at her most defenseless,” Stein said. Except for a recording Mrs. Garlinghouse made on her phone, “he probably would have gotten away with it.”
Further, at trial, he attacked her as unstable, out of control and abusive, Stein said. “He publicly and unapologetically attempted to assassinate her character at trial.”
At trial, Garlinghouse claimed that Sparki threatened him with a bread knife, which the state claimed Garlinghouse planted.
“We didn’t hear Sparki’s side, but in a way, we really did because she recorded it for us,” Stein said in closing arguments.
She made recordings multiple times while picking up her children from the home they had shared on Osprey way, and she had been recording the day she was murdered.
The day before Garlinghouse murdered his wife, Stein said, he told people she deserved to die.
Garlinghouse claimed it was a joke, but his defense demonstrated, “he still firmly believed that,” Stein said.
Garlinghouse declined to make a statement. His attorney, Brett Jaspers, said he intended to appeal.
“He still has two children he has to be a father to,” Jaspers said, and he is trying to establish guardianship with his parents.
