Pottstown Man Who Strangled Wife With Extension Cord In COVID Lockdown Found Guilty

POTTSTOWN, PA — A jury convicted a man of first-degree murder after he admitted to detectives he strangled his wife with an extension cord in April 2020.

Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter swiftly sentence Michael Hatfield, 70, to life in prison upon the jury's guilty verdict.

In April 2020 Hatfield, of N. Hanover Street, told police he strangled his wife, Mary Hatfield, after an argument.

Authorities with the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and Pottstown Police Department said at the time that Hatfield called police just after 11 a.m. April 10 saying he had "hurt his wife." When asked what kind of injury she had, he responded, "strangulation," according to an affidavit of probable cause released by police.

Hatfield told investigators, he took an orange extension cord from a closet and walked behind his wife as she sat in her recliner, wrapped the cord around her neck, and pulled until she stopped moving, the DA's report said. Read the Patch story from April 2020 here.

In court, prosecutors said the dispute stemmed from a disagreement over Mary Hatfield’s medication, and that her husband’s anger turned to violence after she called him a derogatory name. Relatives testified that the couple, married nearly 40 years, often argued, but said Michael Hatfield had never been abusive before, the Inquirer reported.

Hatfield's attorney asked jurors to find him guilty of the lesser charge of third-degree murder, saying the crime was not premeditated and that he had acted on impulse at the height of the emotionally charged argument, according to the Inquirer's report. After two hours of deliberation Tuesday, jurors convicted Hatfield of first-degree murder.

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