Martin MacNeill timeline
1973: Martin MacNeill joins military at age 17 after lying about his age
1975: Martin placed on disability leave when he is deemed a “latent schizophrenic"; family and judge later question diagnosis but he received V.A. and Social Security benefits for years, even after he became a doctor and lawyer
1977: Martin arrested in California for forging checks; he tells friends he saw check forgers on “60 Minutes” and thought he could do it better and with fewer risks
Feb. 21, 1978: Martin and Michele Somers elope; four months later he begins 6-month jail sentence for forgery, theft, fraud
Early 1980s: Investigators say Martin falsified transcripts with inflated grades and lied on applications to get into two medical schools and later to BYU law school
1984: Martin is licensed as an osteopathic surgeon in California
1987: Martin obtains license to practice as an osteopathic physician and surgeon in Utah
1990: Martin pleaded no contest to alleged Medicaid fraud in Sandy and is banned from Medicaid billing for 12 years
1990: Martin graduates from BYU law school
1998: Martin agrees to resign from BYU Health Center; his work there was punctuated by accusations of rape, complaints of unprofessional conduct and misdiagnosis
1999: He returns to BYU Health Center for three months and more complaints are made against him
2000: Gov. Mike Leavitt appoints Martin medical director of American Fork Training School, later renamed Utah State Developmental Center
August 2000: Police called to house after Martin threatens to kill wife and himself with knife after she caught him looking at pornography
2003: Couple adopts five more children, four from Ukraine; one adoption is later terminated, making a family of eight children: Rachel, Vanessa, Alexis, Damian, Giselle, Sabrina, Elle and Ada
2005: Martin has affair with Anna Osborne Walthall, who told psychiatrist she was dating a “serial killer” because she said Martin told her that he’d killed his brother in a bathtub and tried to kill his mother when he was young; she said he also offered to kill her husband and described writing an anonymous article about “mercy killing” in which a patient was euthanized with pain killers but was never held accountable, court documents state
November 2005: Martin meets Gypsy Willis online and begins relationship with her
February 2007: Michele’s suspicions that her husband is having an affair increase and she confronts him repeatedly
April 3, 2007: Michele receives facelift at husband’s encouragement; plastic surgeon prescribes stronger drugs than he normally would at Martin’s request
April 4, 2007: Michele is lethargic and unresponsive when daughter Alexis tries to wake her; Alexis takes over care after father tells her he “probably over-medicated” the woman
April 6, 2007: Michele tells Alexis: "If anything happens to me, make sure it was not your dad"
April 10, 2007: Alexis returns to school in Las Vegas
April 11, 2007: Michele dies in bathtub of her Pleasant Grove home with four drugs in her system; Martin orders son to dispose of all her medication; Pleasant Grove police conclude death was accidental
April 2007: Autopsy concludes she died of natural causes
April 14, 2007: Martin speaks at wife’s funeral but only mentions Michele in passing
April 17, 2007: Martin asks daughter Rachel to go to Mount Timpanogos Temple with him to pray about a nanny; mistress Gypsy Willis approaches them in what Rachel called a “scripted” encounter
May 2007: Willis moves into family’s Pleasant Grove home as nanny
June 2007: Police are called as Martin kicks out daughters Rachel and Alexis from home after they said they asked why Willis didn’t cook, clean or take care of the children
Sometime in 2007: Martin changes his will to give just $1 to each of his children with everything else to go to Willis under her false identity, according to investigators
July 20, 2007: Martin and Willis obtain marriage license but never marry
July 2007: Daughter Giselle MacNeill returns to Ukraine to visit biological sister for summer; family and investigators believe Martin planned for trip to be permanent and a ploy to steal her identity
Sept. 2, 2007: Police report filed alleging Martin twice fondled sleeping daughter and said, "I thought you were your mother"; criminal charge filed, dismissed, then later refiled
September 2007: Linda Cluff writes letters to Gov. Jon Huntsman and Utah County Attorney's Office asking them to launch investigation into her sister's death
September 2007: Martin is fired from Department of Health and Human Services
November 2007: Willis brings domestic violence complaint against Martin but later recants and it is dismissed; notary says Martin dominated conversation during recanting and investigators believe he prepared document that led to the dismissal because he spelled Willis' name wrong
Summer 2008: Daughter struggling with addiction asks for help from Martin but says he offered mutual suicide as solution
January 2009: Martin indicted in federal court on nine counts of identity theft and other charges after he and Willis used his daughter Giselle’s identity to alter Willis’ identity to create fake IDs and open up bank accounts under the false name; he also deeded house to himself while acting as attorney for his dead wife
January 2009: Willis indicted on 11 similar charges
August 2009: Martin sentenced to four years in prison
September 2009: Martin pleads guilty to state forgery and fraud charges and is sentenced to three years in jail; sentence to run concurrent with federal case
September 2009: Willis sentenced to 21 months in federal prison but begins sentence a month earlier than scheduled after prosecutors said she planned to flee to Mexico
December 2009: Willis is charged in state court with fraud and other charges; she is later sentenced to three years’ probation and agrees to testify against Martin in deal with prosecutors
Jan. 16, 2010: Martin’s only son, Damian, commits suicide by overdosing on prescription drugs
October 2010: Autopsy changed Michele's cause of death to include "drug toxicity" and says Michele could not have administered medication to herself
Dec. 4, 2010: Deseret News publishes extensive report about circumstantial evidence against Martin in his wife’s death
March 2011: Willis is released from federal prison and returns to Utah
July 6, 2012: Martin is released from Texas federal prison and returns to his Pleasant Grove home
Aug. 24, 2012: Utah County Attorney’s Office charges Martin with murdering his wife in 2007
Oct. 17, 2013: Testimony begins in Martin’s murder trial in Provo
Nov. 9, 2013: After 11 hours of deliberation, jurors announce at 1 a.m. that Martin is guilty of murder and obstruction of justice for making the death appear to be accidental
Email: bwest@deseretnews.com
Twitter: MisterWestt