Valen pleads guilty to murdering wife in March

Jodi Valen, left, was murdered in March and last week her husband, John, pled guilty charges of second-degree homicide.

John Valen, charged with the brutal murder of his wife of only a few months on March 5 of this year, pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder last week before Fourth District Judge Mike McLaughlin in Boise.

Valen, 34, had been charged with second degree murder, plus two counts of cruelty to animals and one count of arson after he was found in the couple's smoke-filled home at 114 E. 8th North St., with the body of his wife, Jodi Lynn Valen, 37, stabbed and partially burned in the bathtub of the home, and both of the couple's dogs stabbed to death.

During a preliminary hearing held earlier this year, during which Magistrate Judge David Epis had determined there was probable cause to bind Valen over for trial in district court, witnesses testified that Jodi Valen, the former Jodi Prather and a long-time resident of Mountain Home, had been stabbed more than 100 times, and then her body set on fire.

The couple had married in December of 2004.

John Valen was, at the time of his arrest, a senior airman at Mountain Home AFB who worked as a weapons loader in the 366th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. He had been assigned to the base for about three years.

Following last Monday's surprise plea, during a court session that lasted less than half an hour, sentencing for Valen was set for Nov. 16 at 9 a.m. in the Elmore County Courthouse.

Valen's plea was made without any conditions, although the arson and cruelty to animals charges were dropped. The plea eliminated the need for a lengthy and costly murder trial, which had been scheduled to begin in early October.

There had been lengthy mediation efforts between the public defender's office and former Prosecutor Aaron Bazzoli to strike some kind of a plea arrangement, but those efforts had broken down during the summer.

After Kristina Schindele was named to replaced Bazzoli, who had moved on to become a magistrate judge in July, the new prosecutor re-opened negotiations with Public Defender Ed Frachiseaur, and was able to obtain the plea agreement made last week.

There were no sentencing agreements made as part of Valen's plea.

The penalty for second-degree murder ranges from ten years in prison to life. The incident did not meet the legal criteria for first-degree murder.

"I'm free to argue whatever I think is reasonable," in terms of sentencing Schindele said.

"I expect they (the defense) will argue a lot of mitigating factors, and we (the prosecution) can argue aggravating factors."

Schindele said she was happy about the plea and said she believed the resolution to the case was fair "to both the county and the victim."

She said the family of Jodi Valen had all been advised of the plea arrangement and had had input into the final negotiations that led to the plea.

It is expected that family members will make victim impact statements during the sentencing hearing.

Jodi Lynn Valen is survived by her three children, Blair, Mikel, and Alesha, of Nampa (they were not living with their mother at the time of her death), her mother and stepfather, Chyrl and Scott Grondahl of Nampa, her brother and sister-in-law, Garret and Heather Tillitt of Kuna, and brothers, Brandon Seek of Kuna and Mathew Seek of Nampa, and her grandmother, Talma Justesen of Nampa.