The wife of former Mayor Jim Hayes asked a federal judge Wednesday — two days before the couple is to be sentenced for stealing from social service grants — to hold her responsible and show compassion for her husband.

Murilda “Chris” Hayes, who ran the South Fairbanks church-affiliated tutoring and mentoring center that benefited from almost $3 million in congressional earmarks, wrote in the 12-page letter that she was in charge of finances at the center, not her husband, who served on its board of directors for a time.

“I would like to take a stand for my husband Jim Hayes. We never talked about the grants for LOVE Social Services, other than me originally asking him for help in getting funds for (the center),” she wrote.

A jury convicted Jim Hayes in February of working with Chris to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars toward an over-budget church construction project across the street and for personal spending. Chris Hayes pleaded guilty to two similar counts.

Federal prosecutors have asked District Judge John Sedwick to sentence Jim Hayes to up to eight years in jail and Chris to between five and six years for stealing from the grants between 2001 and 2005.

Chris Hayes’ letter represents the first notable public statement from the former Fairbanks first lady, who co-founded the tutoring center and ran it as executive director, since federal agents simultaneously served search warrants at the center, the church and the couple’s home more than two years ago.

More than two dozen acquaintances, including church leaders, former elected officials and friends, have written in recent weeks asking Sedwick to consider the former three-term mayor’s accomplishments and public service during sentencing proceedings Friday morning in Fairbanks.

Hayes refers in her statement, submitted with other court papers Wednesday, to signs and diagnoses of physical and mental illnesses linked to the charges. Lawyers on both sides of the case have indicated Hayes began suffering health problems after a grand jury indicted the couple in early 2007.

In the letter, Hayes acknowledged spending money from the grants for personal and family purposes. Federal investigators had traced spending to the family and the church on things including a years’ worth of car insurance payments, a wedding reception for the couple’s son and payments to Chris Hayes’ debt-management company.

Prosecutors have also pointed to spending on items like a plasma television and an ornamental lighthouse for the couple’s home as evidence they worked together.

“These items, costing over $5,000, although ordered by Chris Hayes, were prominently displayed in the living room and back yard of the house and are big ticket items that Jim Hayes certainly would have been aware of,” government attorneys wrote in court papers this week.

Chris Hayes wrote that while the grants were meant to help the center, LOVE Social Services was intended to be affiliated with the church. She said the acronym in its name stands for “Lily of the Valley Education” and noted many of the church’s members served as tutors, staff members and mentors across the street.

“I have had a hard time thinking about what I have done and the cause it has brought upon me,” she wrote. “First I truly apologize for the personal funds that I find myself to have spent. My mind has not come to a reasonable solution as to why I would have spent funds on myself, or family members.”

Contact staff writer Christopher Eshleman at 459-7582.