The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:31 PM

Marissa DeVault broke down Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court as the brain surgeon who tried to save her husband’s life described the damage she had caused.

On a screen behind the doctor, prosecutors projected a larger-than-life photograph of Dale Harrell, 34, as he lay unconscious in a hospital bed, his eyes blackened, his head partially shaved, his temple bisected by a fresh surgical scar.

His cheek and temple had been caved in by a claw hammer on Jan. 14, 2009, and he died three weeks later. DeVault, 36, stands accused of his murder, and prosecutors hope to send her to death row for the crime. DeVault claims she acted in self-defense.

For a day and a half, jurors listened to audiotapes and watched videotapes of police detectives playing cat and mouse with DeVault in the days after she was arrested.

And then the doctor took the stand.

Dr. Joseph Zabramski described the delicate surgery he performed on Harrell, how he cleared away the blood clots, removed razor-sharp bone fragments and irrigated brain tissue so that he could repair the microscopic tears.

By the time Zabramski began testifying about Harrell’s death after a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in his lungs that stopped his heart — DeVault was weeping disconsolately with her head on the defense table.

Judge Roland Steinle called for a break. After the jury filed out, DeVault erupted in audible sobs before being led out of the courtroom. Steinle sent the jury home for the day.

Then Steinle turned to the defense attorneys.

“I’m telling you right now that this is not going to be an ongoing thing,” he said. “I’m going to live up to my name as hard-hearted.

“If she’s not able to sit in the courtroom and proceed, I’m going to treat that as her voluntarily absenting herself from proceedings. And if she’s disruptive,” Steinle continued, “I’ll have the deputy escort her out.”

There was one last glitch in the day.

Stanley Cook, who lived in DeVault’s and Harrell’s Gilbert home, sat in the court hallway all day while waiting to take the stand. Cook had falsely confessed to killing Harrell, but was expected to testify that he actually witnessed the episode.

But on Wednesday, Cook’s attorney invoked the Fifth Amendment on his client’s behalf because new evidence had been discovered and the attorney had not had time to review it.

Today, jurors are expected to watch the last of the interrogation videotape and then hear testimony either from DeVault’s boyfriend, Allen Flores, who was granted partial immunity in exchange for his testimony, or from a strip-club friend DeVault allegedly tried to contract to kill Harrell for her.

Reach the reporter at michael .kiefer@arizonarepublic.com.