SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — A case KREM 2 has been following for eight years has finally come to an end.
It was eight years ago on East Alki Avenue in Spokane Valley when Vladimir Pavlik was arrested and later sentenced for beating his wife with a tire iron and cutting out her tongue.
Now, we are learning that he's set to be released in just a couple of years.
"This case, it was extremely gruesome and very violent," Mark Gregory, public information officer with the Spokane County Sheriff's, said in 2016 when the crime initially happened.
According to court documents, on October 5, 2016, Pavlik called paramedics to his Spokane Valley home. Pavlik later admitted to detectives that he was the one who beat her until she was unconscious, then cut her tongue out with a pair of pliers and a knife. He said it was because she used her tongue from Satan to curse him for Satan's sake.
Documents say the victim had multiple skull fractures, two arterial bleeds in her head and neck and a laceration to her tongue, with damage too severe to reattach it among other injuries.
Pavlik told detectives she wasn't going to die because his intent wasn't to kill her, but rather, it was to stop her from cursing and tormenting him. Using this act, to show women not to mock men the way she mocked him.
After the initial charges, the court ordered a competency evaluation for Pavlik. But with findings going back and forth on his ability to stand trial, Pavlik spent the last eight years in Spokane County Jail.
In 2023, Pavlik was once again found competent. In September, when discussing a new trial date, Pavlik originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. But late last week, he changed his plea to guilty for the lesser charge of first-degree assault from the initial attempted murder charge.
Pavlik was sentenced to close to 10 years in prison, but was given credit for his time he already served, which means he has less than two years behind bars. Then, he will serve three years of probation after his release.