Alexander v. Alexander

DURHAM, Justice:

Plaintiff Stephen Norris Alexander appeals from a decree of divorce awarding defendant Diane Jean Alexander custody of their youngest child.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in Arizona in 1968. At the time of the marriage, defendant was sixteen years old and pregnant. The parties had two more children within the first three and a half years of their marriage, making defendant the mother of three preschoolers at the age of nineteen. After a ten and a half-year hiatus, the parties’ fourth and final child was born.

*223The parties’ family life was marred by conflicts that climaxed…