MADISON (WKOW) -- A Dane County judge bound over Andrew Spear for trial Tuesday afternoon on charges including attempted homicide, after a police detective testified Spear's wife told him her husband poured gasoline over her head and lit the gas.
Authorities said the victim, Wisconsin Department of Health Services chief legal counsel Mary Spear, was not burned by the fire, as she and her husband extinguished it.
In an unsuccessful attempt to have Mary Spear produced as a witness at her husband's preliminary hearing, Andrew Spear's attorney, Brian Brophy, told Judge David Flanagan he anticipated Spear's wife would testify her husband suspected an affair between Mary Spear and Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith, and that the fire-setting was accidental, as the couple argued.
Assistant Dane County District Attorney Matthew Moeser told the court Brophy's version of Mary Spear's possible testimony was Andrew Spear's version of what happened.
In a statement from Smith, he acknowledged a lifelong friendship with Mary Spear, and denied having an affair with her.
"I categorically and unequivocally deny that I have ever had a relationship with Mary Spear beyond friendship," Smith stated.
Smith hired Spear away from a private sector position in Texas in January.
During testimony at the preliminary hearing, Madison police detective James Grann testified Spear said she was threatened by her husband as he doused her with gasoline in a storage unit and made several attempts to ignite the gas. Grann testified Spear said her husband told her he wanted to burn her body and bury her.
Flanagan reduced Andrew Spear's bail from $507,000 to $107,000, after Brophy argued Spear's assets had been mischaracterized when bail was originally set.
