Opinion ID: 2507176
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Other Evidence in Aggravation

Text: Rosie Lampignano Wright dated defendant for a few months when she was in high school. She broke up with him and knew he would be angry. One morning in May 1976, when he called her over to talk and she refused to go, he hit her two or three times in the face with his fist. She suffered a swollen lip and some cuts and bruises on her arms from the bushes he had thrown her into after hitting her. Defendant was convicted of burglary in 1976. In 1978, defendant dated and for a time lived with Jodi Lavalle, but got into an argument with her and her father when her father came to help her move out. Defendant threatened to kill Jodi and burn down her parents' home. In the middle of the night on April 26, 1978, while Jodi was sleeping on the couch in the living room of her parents' home, defendant threw a Molotov cocktail through the living room window. It landed at the base of the couch and started a fire. Jodi suffered first degree burns just about everywhere and second and third degree burns on her feet and hands as well as scarring on her lips and chin and above her eye. Her father suffered blistering on his feet. Defendant was convicted of arson. On September 13, 1982, defendant, then a convicted felon, was found in unlawful possession of a loaded firearm after police received a tip from an informant that defendant was planning to rob a bank. On March 12, 1984, when Pamela Cummings walked past defendant's holding cell, he threatened her, saying, You bitch. I don't care if I have to sniff gas. I am going to get you. I don't care how long it takes. You won't be able to hide. I am going to kill you. On April 27, 1984, while defendant was in the hallway between cells at the county jail, he lit a torch he had devised out of a tightly rolled newspaper with toilet paper at the end and shoved it into another inmate's face. In 1988, after defendant and Robin were divorced and defendant had remarried, defendant called Robin and told her he was going to send her a letter containing a special message that could be read when it was held up to a light. (Certain words had been typed over repeatedly.) The letter frightened Robin and she turned it over to her former parole officer. It read: I plan to escape. Can you help? I really need an over and under two-shot Derringer. [¶] I tell you how. You can get me a package, canned goods. I hope to be happy with you and the children. [¶] I must use Jan [his new wife] as long as I am here. My heart isn't in it, but I will deal with it. [¶] Say bye-bye if you understand.