Man accused of killing wife is found dead

A man who spent 19 months in jail after being accused of killing his wife during an ill-fated bay excursion in 2004 has been found dead in his home, the Solano County coroner’s office said Monday.

Corbin Easterling, 37, was found in his Vallejo home Saturday and declared dead about 3 p.m., said coroner’s spokeswoman Susan Parson.

She said an unidentified person had called police and asked them to check on Easterling.

An autopsy was done Monday, but no cause of death was immediately determined, Parson said.

Vallejo police did not return calls for comment.

In June, Easterling said he intended to sue Sonoma County for malicious prosecution, withholding evidence and manipulating witnesses after he spent more than a year and a half in jail awaiting trial on charges that he killed his wife.

The couple had spent much of Oct. 11, 2004, on San Pablo Bay when their personal watercraft overheated, leaving them clinging to the partly submerged machine overnight. Easterling said that when he awoke his wife was dead.

Prosecutors alleged that Easterling covered his wife’s nose and mouth and held her under water. But they eventually dismissed the case, saying they could not prove that her death was not an accident.