Opinion ID: 1202382
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: facts

Text: The prosecution presented no new evidence at the penalty phase. The defense produced the testimony of relatives and friends as to defendant's upbringing and good qualities and the testimony of two psychologists as to his personality disorders. It appears that defendant's parents divorced when defendant was five and the new family moved to New York. Thereafter defendant and his sister were strongly discouraged from maintaining a relationship with their father. On two occasions when defendant seemed to side with his father, the mother sent him back to Chicago to his father, whether the father wanted him or not. On the first of such incidents, defendant was only a child of seven. Evidence indicated the stepfather was a strict disciplinarian who spanked the children with a strap for any infraction of his sometimes quixotic rules and molested defendant's sister from age 10 until she left the home at age 17. Defendant's mother invariably sided with the stepfather in any family dispute and indeed was repeatedly protective of him even in her testimony at this trial. It was the opinion of one psychologist that this family situation left defendant confused, frustrated, very angry and with feelings of insecurity and inferiority. While defendant was not psychotic, he had a mixed personality disorder and an atypical psychosis disorder evidenced also by a detailed fantasy life in which he believed, inter alia, that he had been in the jungles of Viet Nam and had worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. The other psychologist described defendant's mother as cold, manipulative, demanding, and extremely self-centered. This psychologist opined that defendant never developed a conscience since the stepfather was an omnipresent conscience under which everything defendant did was wrong. This led to defendant's vivid imagination, limited insight, and poor impulse control and judgment and his difficulty separating fantasy from reality. Defendant nonetheless had demonstrated some good qualities. His mother recounted how he worked three jobs to save the money for his first car. He was active in high school and formed his own band. He joined the army, received several letters of commendation, and ultimately an honorable discharge. Thereafter he received some higher education at California State University, Fullerton and Santa Ana College on the GI bill and became a photographer. Two former girlfriends testified to his kindness and other good qualities and stated he had never been abusive or violent. He had not previously been in trouble with the law. The defense introduced various pictures of defendant as a child and teenager and provided samples of his photographic work.