Husband who murdered high school receptionist gets 30 years without parole

A Rockford, IL man who murdered his wife as she slept was sentenced to 30 years without parole. Winnebago County Judge Joe McGraw sentenced 65 year old Thomas McFeegan to that term Wednesday, February 17 after a guilty plea. The victim was a longtime receptionist at Rockford's Auburn High School Main Campus, and co-founded a homicide victims' support group.

McFeggan’s wife, Carol, 62, was discovered the morning of June 29 by their daughter, Sarah McFeggan, and Sarah’s friend, Valerie Heinisch, inside the couple’s northwest Rockford home. Police found the woman deceased in her bed. Police spoke to Sarah McFeggan, who gave officers a note written by her father that she said she had found in the kitchen.

In the note, Thomas McFeggan wrote that he killed Carol McFeggan, and that her death was not a suicide. He also revealed in his note that he and Carol were facing foreclosure on their home, although Carol didn’t know about it. Thomas also wrote that he had planned to commit suicide.

However, instead of killing himself, law enforcement found Thomas fishing in a Vilas County, WI lake, where he was arrested July 1. He was found with a .38 caliber handgun, which he admitted using against his wife when Rockford detectives interviewed him.

Rape myths in Britain are alive and well - New Statesman

The results of a survey published [Monday] suggest that more than half (54 per cent) of women think that rape victims are sometimes to blame for the crime.

Of these women, 71 per cent thought that the victim should accept responsibility if they got into the same bed as their attacker, compared with 57 per cent of men. Nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of women said that the victim should accept partial responsibility if they went back to the attacker's house. 23 per cent thought that a victim who danced suggestively on a night out was to blame if they were subsequently raped, and 31 per cent thought the same of those wearing provocative clothes.

These statistics -- gathered in an online survey for Havens sexual assault referral centres -- are sadly indicative of the culture of blame and disbelief that still surrounds rape. It is particularly worrying that the youngest age group -- those between 18 and 24 -- were the least forgiving, showing that these attitudes are not undergoing any positive generational shift.

Indeed, if this survey is cross-referenced to a similar poll five years ago, it appears that attitudes may have actually hardened -- then, a minority of British people blamed women for rape, although there was no notable difference between the genders. On specifics, results were similar: 30 per cent thought that a woman was at least partially responsible for being raped if she was drunk, and 22 per cent if she had had many sexual partners.

These results are depressing, but perhaps not wholly surprising. Why are people -- and women specifically -- so keen to blame the victim? These entrenched social attitudes may well be tied into the culture of disbelief in the justice system, and in the media. I have blogged before about the fact that the UK has the lowest conviction rates in Europe -- just 6.5 per cent of reported cases, compared with 34 per cent of other crimes.

It is also notable that cases of false accusations receive a disproportionate amount of newspaper coverage. A quick internet search yields innumerable results, although Rape Crisis estimates that false reporting rates for rape are around 6-8 per cent, exactly the same as for other crimes. This excessive coverage was reflected in the survey, where 18 per cent of respondents said that they thought most accusations of rape are probably false.

But the fact is, if so many people are ready to believe that a woman is culpable in her own violation, jury trials will inevitably be affected: it is a self-perpetuating, vicious circle. While the majority of people in the Havens poll were keen to assign partial blame to the victim, one in five women said that they would not report it to the police if they were raped, saying that they would be ashamed, or would not be believed. This feeling is justified -- just last year a freedom of information request showed that some police forces were failing to record more than 40 per cent of reported rape cases -- but we have no hope of changing police attitudes if these attitudes continue to proliferate across society.

We urgently need education; a high profile campaign, starting with schools, to educate the public and eradicate the view that rape is sometimes deserved.

In response to the survey, the BBC had reactions from rape victims, including these from victims whose rapists groomed them into relationships before the attacks.

I was raped by my husband as he became increasingly possessive and violent. How can you blame a woman who has gotten into bed with the person beforehand? Where there is violent, intimidation, where you feel obliged to get into bed with the person just to quell their temper like I did. I never went to the police because I am glad to have escaped my husband. Now, I want to forget it.

Anonymous, Bristol

  My ex-boyfriend tried to rape me. I had got into bed with him at the end of night, I told him I didn't want sex (or anything) and if we were going to become an item again then I wanted to take things slow. He tried to force himself on me and I was screaming and fighting him when my housemates came in and pulled him off of me. I may have been naïve but I was not responsible for his inability to control himself.

K, London

Zionsville, IN man pleads guilty to bashing death of ex-wife, sentenced to 43 years

(Original Post 12-21-09)

A Zionsville, Indiana man was given a plea deal by Boone County, IN prosecutors Thursday, December 17 in the slaying of his ex-wife on June 11, 2009 because the price of getting a murder conviction would be making their 5 year old son testify about the night his father bashed his mother's head in. 32 year old Michael Stayer pled guilty to the charges in exchange for a 43 year prison sentence in the Indiana Department Of Corrections.

According to Stayer's confession, he and the victim, his ex-wife, got into an argument at her Whitestown apartment. While he was in their daughter's bedroom, he said, Beth Stayer charged at him with a hammer, which he took from her and proceeded to use on her as their son watched.

Prosecutors said Beth Stayer also was beaten with a metal can and other objects for approximately five minutes. Leaving his ex-wife in a pool of blood on the floor, Stayer called 911. Beth Stayer was rushed to Methodist Hospital, where she died the next day.

The Stayers, divorced for less than two months at the time of the slaying, had marital trobles, and Michael had stalked and threatened his wife. Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer said "The cost to get a murder conviction was too great. In order to get the murder conviction, we would have to call Carson Stayer as a witness. . . . Making him relive the crime is too significant of a burden to put on a 5-year-old child."

Ned Masbaum, forensic psychologist, said that testiying against his father "could be more harmful to Carson by his feeling more unrealistic guilt and depression. He is too young to be able to put his role as a witness into the concept of justice for his mother."

Stayer also made a deal with the Indiana Department of Child Services for his parental; rights not to be terminated in exchange for Carson and his 2 year old sister Ashleigh to continue to live with the victim's father. Boone Circuit Judge Steve David will formally sentence Stayer on February 17. Stayer is expected to become parole-eligible in 2030.

(Update 2-18-10) Sentencing, as expected, took place yesterday for Stayer. Stayer will serve 43 years in the custody of the Indiana Department Of Corrections. Judge David said that "Your lack of remorse is disturbing to me. It's appalling, if not shocking...Your children may never fully recover from your reckless act of violence. Innocent people have been affected by your actions."

Boone County Prosecutor Todd Meyer said that "I don't think he's in touch with the reality of what he's done and what he's done to his family."  Sheriff Ken Campbell said that when he transported Stayer to the courthouse, he was making small talk with the guards. Campbell said Stayer would be placed in the custody of the Indiana Department Of Corrections as soon as possible because "I don't want him in my jail."

Wyoming sex assault case highlights kids are not the only targets of online sexual predators

(AP) CASPER, Wyo. - Authorities say a Casper woman was assaulted at her front door, raped at knifepoint in her living room and left bound on the floor, and they say one of the men charged in the brutal attack claimed that he thought it was invited.

Two men are accused in the crime. One is charged with carrying out the rape. The other, the woman's ex-boyfriend, stands accused of posing as the victim online and claiming she harbored a rape fantasy and wanted to be assaulted.

The case in the central Wyoming city of Casper, population 54,000, illustrates that middle America isn't immune to the dangers of Internet anonymity and predators who target victims through online ads that hint at sex and prostitution.

Prosecutor Mike Blonigen, the Natrona County district attorney, declined to comment on the specifics of the ongoing rape case. But he said Internet cases generally pose a challenge to law enforcement.

  "Tracking down who's involved is relatively difficult," Blonigen said. "It's pretty easy to set up a false identity in cyberspace, so that's always an issue. And of course, they have to make some overt act to actually accomplish any of these things. We're not the thought police."

In the Casper case, Blonigen's office has charged Ty Oliver McDowell, 26, of Bar Nunn, a Casper suburb, with three counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and one count of aggravated burglary. Jebidiah James Stipe, 27, a Marine based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree sexual assault. Lawyers representing McDowell and Stipe declined comment.

A few days before the Casper woman was raped, she had complained to the Natrona County Sheriff's Department that someone had made a false Craigslist posting about her, including photographs and personal information. The ad read, "Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women," authorities said.

Craigslist took the advertisement down when the woman complained. Yet prosecutors say it was posted long enough to catch the attention of McDowell, a medical technologist.

According to a statement filed in court by Natrona County Sheriff's Deputy Todd Sexton, McDowell waived his right to remain silent and talked to deputies investigating the case. "McDowell admitted to going to the victim's residence ... and having sexual contact with (the woman) to fulfill a 'rape fantasy' for her," Sexton wrote.

McDowell told investigators that he had corresponded with a person he thought was the woman at an e-mail address featured on the advertisement, Sexton wrote. However, prosecutors charge that McDowell was actually communicating by e-mail with Stipe, the woman's former boyfriend. They say Stipe posted the ad to set the woman up for the attack without her knowledge.

The San Bernardino County (Calif.) Sheriff's Department on Dec. 16 arrested Stipe, a private first-class in the U.S. Marine Corps then stationed at Twentynine Palms. A spokeswoman for the Marine Corps said Stipe enlisted in July 2001 and, "was being processed for administrative separation as a result of a pattern of misconduct at the time of his arrest."

The Casper case is one of several sex crimes to grab headlines recently in which the Internet linked perpetrators and victims. Law enforcement officials around the country also have in the past accused Craigslist of promoting prostitution.

Scrutiny of Craigslist increased significantly when prosecutors in Boston last year charged that former medical student Philip Markoff used Craigslist to arrange a meeting with masseuse Julissa Brisman. He's accused of shooting her to death last April and of attacking other women he met through the site.

In 2008, Craigslist agreed to tighten its adult services advertisements as part of an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and with the attorneys general for 43 states and territories, including Wyoming.

Under the agreement, Craigslist started requiring a working telephone number and charging a small credit card fee for each such ad. "Requiring credit card verification and charging a fee to post in this category raises accountability to a point where we expect few illicit ads will remain," Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in November 2008 in a joint statement with the state prosecutors and the children's center.

Craigslist didn't respond to an e-mail sent to their San Francisco headquarters seeking comment on the Wyoming rape case, although a company phone message requests that press inquiries be made by e-mail.

Blonigen, the Casper prosecutor, said Craigslist was cooperative with Wyoming investigators. "I would prefer that they maybe not run these ads," Blonigen said. "You know somebody's going to do it even if they don't."

Wyoming State Sen. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, is a criminal defense attorney and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the state Legislature. He said the committee may have to consider whether state law is up to the challenge of dealing with sexual predators who prowl the Internet. "The world is changing so rapidly here, particularly with regard to Internet, cyber crimes, and things like that, that we're going to see a whole new evolution of law, it seems to me," Ross said.

(Update 2-14-10) Last Tuesday, Ty Oliver McDowell, the alleged actual rapist, appeared before Judge Scott Skavdahl and entered a not-guilty plea in Natrona County District Court. He is being charged with conspiracy to commit sexual assault, which carries a maximum life sentence. He's being held on $250,000 bond in the Natrona County Detention Center and his trial is scheduled for late April.

His codefendant, Jebidiah James Stipe, the victim's ex-"boyfriend," is being held on $500,000 bond. He's yet to be arraigned.

Ft. Smith prison guard sentenced to 4 years for coercing sex from inmates

A former jailer in Arkansas was sentenced to 4 years in prison for 2 counts of 3rd degree sexual assault after pleading guilty Wednesday, February 10. Sebastian County Detention Center ex-guard Leon Wilson Wood, 65, was convicted of coercing 2 women inmates into sex acts on his shift, June 15, 2009. After his shift ended, the victims notified other officers about the attack. They told authorities that they felt trapped because Wood was in a position of authority over them.

Wood was given a four-year prison term plus six years suspended on one count, and 10 years suspended on the second count, meaning he’ll be on a suspended sentence for 16 years once he’s released from prison.

Wood, who worked at the detention center for about a year, was a battalion chief for the Fort Smith Fire Department and had served there from 1968 to 2000, according to a fire department official.

His son, 40 year old Timothy Wood, is also a former Ft. Smith firefighter and convicted sex offender. Police arrested Tim for trying to solicit a detective posing as a 13 year old girl for sex. Officials found child pornography, and is serving a federal prison sentence.

Former Riverside officer gets 3 months jail, lifetime SO registration for coercing woman into oral sex

A former Riverside, CA police officer will have to serve 23 more days for coercing a woman into oral sex while on duty. Robert Allan Forman, 39, sentenced yesterday, will serve a total of 3 months in jail and three years probation. Forman only has 23 days to serve on his jail term, but must register for life as a California sex offender. He was convicted December 12 of a count of forced oral copulation, and misdemeanor petty theft for stealing from a john. 

According to prosecutors, Forman went to a Riverside woman's home in March 2008 to investigate a check fraud case, then returned to the house alone to receive oral sex. The woman testified she felt forced to comply because he was a police officer and she feared going to jail. Jurors acquitted Forman of a second charge when a prostitute alleged he picked her up in a local park and forced her to perform oral sex.

Forman testified that the relations were consensual, but admitted during his sentencing hearing Thursday that he acted inappropriately, said his attorney, Mark Johnson. He has maintained he is innocent of any crime. "He placed himself in a position that made him vulnerable," Johnson said.

Deputy District Attorney Elan Zektser declined to comment after the sentencing.

Johnson said his client's case can be compared to David Kushner, the Moreno Valley ex-officer sentenced to 3 months in jail and 5 years probation for 2 counts of forcible orla copulation and kidnapping.

The victim in the criminal case and the prostitute Forman was criminally acquitted of abusing have both filed complaints against the city of Riverside. These claims are for a total of $11.6 million.

17 year old sentenced to 16 years for burglary, attempted rape

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Kubicki Jr. sentenced 17 year old Deonte Leary to 16 years for two burglaries and the attempted rape of a Madisonville, OH teacher yesterday. The sentence was part of a plea deal reached where Leary plead guilty to burglary, aggravated burglary, attempted rape and aggravated robbery. Two other charges were dropped against him.

Leary broke into a Madisonville home April 12, looking for money, but finding none. He accessed porn on the victim's computer instead. Two days later, he broke into the home of a Madisonville teacher, looking for more money. This time, Leary tried to rape the teacher, but she fought back, ripping off his mask while he ripped off her Ipod. All of the 16 year sentence must be served. 

Curry poisoner gets minimum 23 year sentence for murder of "lover" after refusing to leave fiancee

By Caroline Gammell [London Telegraph]
Published: 3:46PM GMT 11 Feb 2010

Lakhvir Gaur Singh murdered Lakhvinder “Lucky” Cheema when she learned that he had rejected her and chosen a younger bride, Gurjeet Choough. Singh, 45, laced their vegetable curry with aconite, nicknamed the Queen of Poisons, which left Mr Cheema dying in agonising pain. His fiancée spent three days in a coma after the poisoning in January last year and has yet to recover fully.

Singh looked close to tears in the dock at the Old Bailey as she was told she would be nearly 70 by the time she was released. Passing a life sentence, Judge Paul Worsley said: You were not just a spurned lover, you did not simply explode in anger at your rejection. “You set about a cold and calculating revenge. You knew how deadly aconite was and how agonising the effects would be.”

Singh, a married mother of three, was found guilty of murder and grievous bodily harm but was cleared of attempting to poison 39-year-old Mr Cheema on an earlier occasion. Many of Mr Cheema’s relatives were in the public gallery to watch as Singh was sentenced.

His fiancee, now 23, said: “The poisoning led to Lakhvinder’s death and took me to the brink of death. I believe it will affect me for the rest of my life. I can never forgive Lakhvir as she has murdered one person and seriously harmed me. “Lakhvinder was looking forward to having children and also having his elderly father with us but none of this is now possible.”

Mr Cheema’s sister Narinder Kaur Singh, from Windsor, said her life and that of her two sons had been destroyed by Singh’s actions. “With Lakhvinder’s departure I cannot see any reason for living. In our culture a family goes on only through a sin but this has been snatched away from our family. All our joys have been snatched away.”

Mrs Singh, 48, said her husband Varinder – whom Singh tried to blame – had left the family home and she was spurned by her in-laws. “I feel as if there is only emptiness in my life. When my brother was alive he could not bear to see me crying, now I am left to cry for the rest of my life.”

Allanah Benton-Wells, Flint, MI ex-teacher, gets 25-38 years for sex with 12 year old student

While we're on the subject of hefty punishment for sexual assault, as shown by many of the recent sentencings below, Allanah Benton-Wells, a Flint, MI teacher was sentenced to 25 to 38 years imprisonment yesterday for her sexual abuse of a 12 year old boy who she was supposed to have been tutoring around Halloween 2007. The victim wasn't a student in her regular classes at Williams Elementary School, according to Flint Schools spokesman Bob Campbell.

Benton-Wells, who has a history of dating younger men, was convicted on two counts of 1st degree criminal sexual conduct on December 22. Her ex-husband said that Benton-Wells had been in the presence of the boy late at night when he was shirtless and she was in a nightgown. The boy himself testified before running away that Benton-Wells told him to keep their sexual encounters a secret.

At Benton-Wells' sentencing, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Richardson cited the running away as proof of the damage inflicted by the encounters.

Richardson said the victim was a troubled child before his relationship Benton-Wells, where he considered her his “girlfriend,” but his behavior, respect for authority and his attitude toward women have gotten worse since that time. "She took a 12-year-old student under the guise of monitoring and made him a man in his eyes,” Richardson said.

Prosecutor David Leyton said that the crimes, which ripped apart the families of both the victim and the perpetrator, merited a long sentence. “If a teacher or any grown up has sex with someone who is under the age of 13, the sentence should be severe.” He also said that teachers should treat their students "like gold," and  "should keep their hands off.”

Genessee County Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut, after complaining the mandatory 25 year minimum for 1st degree criminal sexual conduct tied his hands, sentenced Benton-Wells to 25-38 years in prison.  “I heard these words during the trial, ‘a school teacher having sex with her sixth-grade student is the most disgusting, reprehensible thing we can imagine.’ That’s why you’re going to prison."

Benton-Wells maintained her innocence through the trial, and said just before sentencing, "I didn’t commit any of these acts, and I’m innocent...I maintain my innocence and that’s all I can do." She'll appeal the sentence, according to her attorney Michael Cronkright. “She thinks the jury got it wrong,” he said.

NY state legislator convicted of misdemeanor assault of girlfriend - sentenced to 3 years probation, expelled from NY Senate

(Original Post 10-17-09)
A prominent New York politician escaped a felony conviction Thursday, October 15 for beating his girlfriend, 30 year old Karla Girardo. However, it seems like 42 year old New York State Senator Hiram Monserratte won't be entirely in the clear. There are already calls for the Democratic Senator representing the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens to be ousted. Felony convictions automatically lead to dismissal from the New York lesiglature, but not misdemeanors.

Addressing a crowded and tense courtroom, Erlbaum said that Monserrate was guilty only of shoving around Giraldo - an attack captured on tape and played in court.

"Only two people" know for sure what happened inside Monserrate's apartment on Dec. 19, 2008, when Giraldo's face was cut, the judge said.

Erlbaum said he could not say for sure if Giraldo was lying, as prosecutors contended. "Can one know she's not being forgiving or that she's not being compassionate?" he said. "One can't know that." Erlbaum concluded, "Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is lacking."

"Yes!" a Monserrate supporter yelled after Monserrate skated on the most serious charges.

Those charges come from an incident in which the state senator from Queens allegedly pushed around Giraldo and cut her face up with a piece of broken glass. The misdemeanor assault charges the politician was found guilty on stemmed from a scuffle in front of security cameras. Queens DA Richard Brown had no problems with the conviction on lesser charges, stating that  the verdict (and surveillance camera) showed that "the defendant physically abused his victim."

Though the misdemeanor conviction calls for a sentence of up to a year in jail, Monserrate will probably get probation, according to his attorney Joe Tacopina. "On a reckless misdemeanor, first offense, he won't go to jail," Tacopina said.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle, as well as leaders of the New York chapter of NOW, are demanding Montserrate's resignation, even though the resignation could cost NY Democrats there slim majority in the NY Senate.

According to state senator Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn), the conviction meant that "ouster is an option . . . it should be seriously considered. It's an assault against a woman. I would hope he would just step aside and move on, but I know better. He ain't going anywhere."

"I was praying that [expletive deleted] would get convicted and he would be gone," said an anonymous Democratic politician. A second senator stated that "a lot of people want to oust him. As the days go by, I think most people will (agree) that we should get rid of the guy. This is not a guy who most of his colleagues want to see back."

Marcia Pappas, president of New York NOW, said "The man is violent. If the Democratic leadership took some kind of action it would certainly send a strong message to women around the state that they are serious about protecting women."

New York Daily News columnist Joanna Molloy has her own take on this incident.

Amazingly, according to Tacopina, "She loves him, as she testified in court. As he said yesterday, he loves her...And they're looking to get back together and resume their marriage...uh, relationship."

To which GDNY (Good Day New York) anchor Rosanna Scotto said, "Will they get married?" and Tacopina replied, "Maybe I said marriage, maybe I let the cat out of the bag, but that's where it's heading."

A few of Monserrate's constituents were also taken aback by the verdict. One woman said, "How do you accidentally smack her with a bottle? I think he did it and she’s afraid. He should be in jail," while a man who previously voted for Monserrate but won't do so again told the NY Times, "He’s a lucky man. Any normal person would be locked up for years. Domestic violence. Guaranteed. You don’t hit a woman. You love a woman."

Monseratte faces up to a year in jail at his sentencing December 4.

(Update 12-5-09) Monserrate was sentenced to 3 years probation, a $1000 fine, 250 hours of community service, and domestic violence counseling for the attach on Giraldo yesterday. He said before Judge Erlbaum that "I am here because of my own actions . . . I am so sorry for the harm Karla Giraldo endured and suffered...It's very difficult, your honor, not to be with her. She deserves happiness, nothing but good."

Giraldo said in Spanish that  "I don't need an order of protection. I want to be with him. I want to continue my normal life," Giraldo, 30, told the judge in Spanish. "Before this we had plans. We would like to get married."

Judge Erlbaum, to his credit, recognized that Giraldo was still under the thrall of her abuser, so he continued the protection order barring Monserrate from seeing her. "I am loath to say you can't be together. But a promise alone that Mr. Monserrate will respect her autonomy is a far cry from remedying the green-eyed monster of jealousy. I hope the time will come that Karla Giraldo will have the self-respect to stop acting like a slave."

Giraldo's lawyer hopes that the protection order is lifted. The New York Senate's Special Committee of Inquiry will decide whether to expel him later this month.

(Update 2-11-10) On Tuesday night, Monserrate was expelled from the New York State Senate by a 53-8 vote. This was the first expulsion from the NY Senate since 1861. All 30 Republicans and 23 Democrats voted for expulsion, with Governor David Patterson announcing a special election for March 16.

Monserrate said that his expulsion was unwarranted because others expelled from the New York Senate committed other, more serious violations.

   Make no mistake about it, this is an effort by some in this body to publicly demonstrate that it is going to expiate all of its sins, and Hiram Monserrate is the perfect scapegoat for your absolution...[I] have also seen a long list of others who were convicted or plead to misdemeanors; many negotiated these pleas to avoid felony convictions. And in all that time no one stood up to say, ‘enough’s enough,’ even when the behavior became common knowledge .

   Yet with all of this history of corrupt and suspect behavior, no senator has ever been forced to face the prospect of expulsion until now...Let me remind everyone that a new election cycle is right around the corner,” he said “If my sins are of such magnitude that the voters of the 13th Senatorial District feel that they can no longer support my continued service-then so be it. It should be up to them to expel me, if they should so decide, but not up to this body.”

Major state newspapers applauded the decision. So did the president of New York NOW, Marcia Pappas, who said, "Anything less than expulsion was not acceptable. Any form of violence against women is not acceptable."

Torrance, CA man who threw bride off cliff convicted of 1st degree murder - sentenced to 25 years to life

(Original Post 12-20-09)
A man who threw his wife of a few weeks off of a cliff to her death in Rancho Palos Verdes will be sentenced to 25 to life for her murder in February. Brandon Manai, 28, and from Torrance, CA, was found guilty of 1st degree murder on Thursday, December 17 in the slaying of 24 year old Julie Rosas, according to Deputy District Attorney Jodi Link.

Manai, who was on probation for choking his girlfriend as a teenager, had dated Rosas only a short time before they were married June 19, 2005, in Las Vegas. The relationship had been rocky, with late-night arguments, Manai showing up at Rosas' workplace unannounced, and incessant phone calls and text messages, Link said. And things did not change after their wedding. Within 48 hours of the ceremony, Rosas was asking her friends how to seek an annulment.

Nearly two weeks later, on July 2, Manai picked up Rosas and was supposed to drive her to a downtown L.A. nightclub where she would meet up with girlfriends. Cellphone signals showed the pair made it to downtown, but they never made it to the club and her friends never heard from her, according to the prosecutor.

Manai, however, had went to the Rancho Palos Verdes cliff, where he threw Rosas 200 feet to her death around 2:30 AM. Manai confessed to a friend over lunch, and that afternoon, a beachgoer found Rosas' body, which went unclaimed until July 6, when her family filed a missing persons report.

Meanwhile, Manai tried to cover his tracks by calling Rosas' home, detrroying her belongings, and writing a diary entry where he wondered where the victim was. Cellphone records unmasked Rosas, as he was found to have been in contact with Rosas up to 55 times a day before July 3, but not at all after July 3.

(Update 2-11-10) As expected, Manai received 25 years to life. The victim's siblings were in court, and Manai said to them at the hearing, "I didn't kill your sister. I didn't throw her off a cliff. It was an accident," contridicting the verdict and the police report. Here is the letter Manai wrote to the victim's sister. Judge James Brandlin entered the letter into the record, and barred him from contacting the victim's family.

Oro Valley man gets 25 to life for strangling "girlfriend," mom of 2

An Oro Valley, AZ man was sentenced to 25 years to life yesterday for the beating and strangulation death of his "girlfriend," 25 year old Lisa Berrie.

On Aug. 12, 2008, [36 year old Paul] Beam's father called 911 to say there had been a domestic violence incident at his son's Oro Valley apartment and his son's girlfriend had been injured. Beam was outside when police arrived, but he turned and went back inside, according to court documents. When police got him to open the door, he said he and two children were the only ones in the apartment.

During a search of the apartment, police found Berrie unconscious on the bedroom floor. She was pronounced dead at University Medical Center about an hour later. An autopsy revealed Berrie had been beaten and strangled.

During his trial, Darlene Edminson-O'Brien, assistant Pima County public defender, asked jurors to convict Beam of manslaughter, saying Beam acted in the heat of passion after Berrie told him she was leaving him and taking their 2-year-old daughter, Katlyn.

However, the victim's parents, Marc and Linda Berrie, told the court that their daughter told them Beam was abusive and that she feared for her life if she ever left him. The parents also helped their daughter apply for jobs in their home state of Delaware for an eventual move back there.

Besides the loss of their daughter, the victim's parents had to move to Tucson to take care of their grandchildren, Katlyn and 8 year old Jeremy. This was because Arizona did not want the children moved out of state. The victim's mother had to retire and become her grandkids' full time caregiver, and this has cost them their life savings.

As for the kids, Katlin reeancts her mother's last moments with her dolls and asks why she can't go and see her mom.

The victim's sister, 24 year old Suzanne Berrie, said that her sister, "a strong Viking woman," would have fought back if given the chance. "He's not a man. He's an animal." 

Jeremy, before showing Pima County Superior Court Judge Clark Munger a picture of his mother, said "I feel mad and sad. Because of this man, my sister is an orphan."

Beam himself read a statement about his "extreme regret" for the killing of Jeremy and Katlin's mom. "I cannot give back what I've taken and for that I'm truly sorry...I do not ask for forgiveness because I can't forgive myself. This never should have happened and I accept responsibility for that."