Uniontown man pleads guilty to attempted assault

March 26--A Uniontown man who tried to suffocate his wife with nitrogen gas was sentenced Tuesday in Whitman County Superior Court to nearly six years in prison.

In a deal negotiated with the prosecution, former Washington State University graduate student Jacob Forster, 33, pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree attempted assault for trying to dose his wife with the gas while she was sleeping in March 2013.

"It was a fair outcome," said Forster's defense attorney, Carl Oreskovich. "Considering what the risks were to go to trial and what likely could have happened, I think the resolution was fair."

A previous charge of attempted first-degree murder was reduced after a recording of a phone conversation obtained by the Whitman County Sheriffs Office during the investigation, in which Forster reportedly admitted his intention had been to kill his wife to collect insurance money, was determined last month by Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier to be inadmissible in trial.

Since his arrest Forster, a graduate student in chemistry, has maintained he was attempting to sedate his wife when she woke up last year with a cardboard box over her head connected by a tube to a pressurized cylinder. He told investigators he simply wanted to make sure she wouldn't wake up while he attempted his own suicide using the gas.

In either case, Frazier said Tuesday, the act was "very serious and very criminal."

"You were either engaged in a very sophisticated plan to kill your wife, with the motive being money, or you engaged in a very sophisticated plan to kill yourself, with the motive being money," he said to Forster, prior to sentencing.

Frazier said he thought the plea deal reached was a reasonable and provided a just outcome, and sentenced Forster to some 69 months in jail. He will be eligible for early release, based on behavior, after 62 months.

Bill McKee can be reached at (208) 883-4627, or by email to [email protected].

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