Man who cut out wife’s tongue in Spokane Valley pleads guilty eight years after assault

A 68-year-old man who beat his wife with a metal bar and cut out her tongue pleaded guilty last week to the near-fatal assault eight years after it happened at the couple’s Spokane Valley home.

On Oct. 5, 2016, deputies found Lyudmila Pavlik bloody and badly beaten in the residence, according to court documents. They arrested her husband, Vladimir Pavlik, who called 911 and later told a detective his wife used her “tongue from Satan” to curse him for Satan’s sake, court records say.

After eight years of sitting in jail, undergoing mental health evaluations and treatment at Eastern State Hospital, cycling through a handful of defense attorneys and initially pleading not guilty by reason of insanity last month, the Ukrainian refugee pleaded guilty Oct. 24 to first-degree assault – domestic violence.

Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Preston McCollam said he believed Vladimir Pavlik’s eight years under detention services, whether in jail or at a hospital, was the lengthiest stay a Spokane County Jail inmate had before a case was resolved.

The prosecution and defense agreed to a 117-month sentence, or almost 10 years, in prison. The sentence included 93 months, the low end of the standard sentence range, and 24 months for a deadly weapon enhancement.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Julie McKay followed the joint recommendation and sentenced Vladimir Pavlik, who required a Russian interpreter, after his guilty plea.

Vladimir Pavlik, who has no prior felonies, will be given credit for time served, meaning he has less than two years left behind bars.

McCollam said Lyudmila Pavlik, who attended the plea and sentencing hearing via Zoom, wanted the charge against her husband dropped.

“This was too violent and heinous of a crime to not proceed with,” McCollam said of the prosecutor’s office decision to move forward with the case.

McKay also imposed a lifetime no-contact order between the couple, with which McCollam said Lyudmila Pavlik disagreed.

She has difficulty speaking because her husband pulled out half her tongue with pliers during the assault, McCollam said. Court records indicated she sustained multiple skull fractures, arterial bleeds in her head and neck, and a hematoma in her skull, among other injuries.

McCollam said she claimed she had no recollection of the assault.

The length of the case was compounded by COVID-19 delays, multiple defense lawyers on and off the case, and Vladimir Pavlik’s ongoing mental health and medical issues, McCollam said.

Vladimir Pavlik was shuttled from Spokane County Jail to Eastern State Hospital and back for treatment and evaluation for mental illness.

His mental state was debated since his arrest, as he was found not competent and competent to stand trial at different times the last eight years.

He was found not competent to stand trial shortly after his arrest after he blamed demons and voices for telling him to kill his wife.

He was treated multiple times at Eastern State Hospital, where a doctor diagnosed him with “passive-aggressive personality features” but said in 2018 that Vladimir Pavlik did not suffer from psychosis, documents say.

He was then ruled competent to stand trial in 2018 and returned to the jail.

In 2019, another competency evaluation found him not competent to stand trial.

Vladimir Pavlik went back to Eastern State Hospital and was again found competent to stand trial in 2020.

In 2022, an Eastern State Hospital report indicated doctors believed Vladimir Pavlik was “seemingly making efforts to misrepresent his true abilities and functioning.”

Vladimir Pavlik participated in programs at Eastern State Hospital, assisted in his medical care and denied having mental illness, the report said. When asked questions about the legal or competency process, however, Vladimir Pavlik gave incoherent answers.

Last year, the court found he was competent to stand trial.

McCollam said this was one of the more serious and difficult crimes he’s come across in his career. Law enforcement who responded to the scene were profoundly affected by Lyudmila Pavlik’s severe injuries.

Vladimir Pavlik must undergo a mental health evaluation and complete any recommended treatment, according to court records.

He will serve three years of probation after he’s released from prison.