Jimmie Wellmon says he's the victim of "a woman scorned" - who wound up marrying him while he was behind bars.

Two weeks before his scheduled trial on attempted first-degree murder in the beating of a woman in a Denver hotel room, Wellmon defended himself against the allegations in an interview at the Denver County Jail.

Wellmon says another man is responsible for the beating and alleges that his legal problems multiplied once police tracked down a former lover who told them he also beat her up and tried to turn her into a prostitute.

She put authorities into contact with other women after concocting outrageous and inflammatory tales for them to tell, Wellmon said.

She "set out to destroy me, she really did," he said. "She picked out every dysfunctional relationship I've ever been in and she coached them, taught them what to say. She groomed them and turned them over to the district attorney," he said.

"She blew this up, she really did," he said. "She had no idea they would take this stuff from jilted ex-girlfriends so seriously."

The woman now regrets it, he says. She was supposed to testify in the trial but has recanted.

"I told her this is insane. I'm gonna die in prison because of this."

He said the woman offered to hire him an attorney but couldn't come up with the money. He fired his public defender, and this week his court-appointed advisory counsel withdrew from the case because she said he was lying to the court.

Wellmon also faces charges of intimidating a witness for allegedly making repeated phone calls to the woman to put pressure on the victim to drop charges, but Wellmon denies threatening anyone.

He points out that the woman accepted the charges from the calls he placed from jail. And that she subsequently married him.

"There has never been a threat, there has never been intimidation, never been retaliation of any sort against her or any other witness. Absolutely none."

Why would he marry a woman who he says set him up to spend the rest of his life in prison?

"I love her," he said.