Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 12, 2006 3:22:40 GMT -5
Gacha’s past detailed in penalty hearing Jury may begin deciding his fate
BY NICHOLE DOBO
STAFF WRITER
WILKES-BARRE — Carrie Martin took disabled children on horseback rides, sang to her family and painted her mother’s nails.
Joseph Gacha Jr. quit school in the eighth grade, was beaten by bullies and began drinking with his father at age 5.
Jurors heard testimony Monday from the Gacha and Martin families in the death penalty hearing for Gacha, who was found guilty Friday of slaying the 20-year-old woman. Today, the jury may decide if Gacha, 29, deserves to die for his role in stabbing Martin nearly 50 times during a robbery in May 2004.
Defense witnesses detailed a childhood of abuse and neglect, in which Gacha and some of his siblings were sent to school in dirty clothes, forced to do hours of toe touches for punishment and beat with a coal shovel.
Gacha’s childhood had a direct impact on how he got to where he is today — fighting for his life after being convicted for premeditated murder, argued Defense Attorney John Pike during opening arguments of the death penalty hearing.
“Render Joe mercy,” Pike told the jury.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty because the murder occurred as Martin was being robbed, one of the legal requirements for a sentence of death in Pennsylvania. The defense sought Monday to provide the jury with evidence why Gacha, the father of four, should not be put to death.
A forensic psychologist who testified for the defense argued Gacha sustained a traumatic head injury that impairs Gacha’s ability to make rational decisions.
That head injury, along with a learning disability, and a personality and attention disorder, makes it difficult for Gacha to stop inappropriate behavior once it has begun, Dr. Jonathan Mack told the jury.
A court-appointed forensic psychiatrist disagreed.
The head injury did not damage Gacha’s brain and he does not have any psychotic symptoms, said Dr. John O’Brien, a forensic psychiatrist and an attorney. Gacha’s head injury — inflicted by an unknown assailant wielding a pipe when Gacha was 18 — fractured facial bones but there is no evidence it altered his brain functions, O’Brien said.
Four of Martin’s family members read the jury victim impact statements, detailing how their lives have changed after Martin, the reigning Luzerne County Fair queen, was killed.
Martin’s mother, Wendy Cadwalader, cries herself to sleep, her husband said. Martin’s grandmother, Donna Grey, worries about the “fear and terror” her granddaughter felt as she was slain. Martin’s stepfather, Chris Cadwalader, wonders how he will someday explain the murder to Martin’s little sister when she is grown.
“We live in an unjust world where something so brutal can happen to the most affectionate and genuine woman I’ve ever known,” Chris Cadwalader told the jury.
Three female jurors wept as Martin’s family testified, as did many sitting in the courtroom.
Several jurors also cried later in the day as Gacha’s brother, Christopher Howell, and sister, Amber Amos, told the jury of growing up in what they described as an abusive and alcoholic home life. They begged the jury to spare Gacha’s life.
“He’s my brother and I love him no matter what he did,” Howell told the jury before he began to sob.
Gacha, who has shown almost no emotion during the trial, began to dab his eyes with tissues as his family and the mother of one of his children testified for him. Gacha has vowed to appeal his conviction of first-degree murder.
Luzerne County assistant district attorneys William Finnegan and Jarrett Ferentino and Gacha’s defense team of Pike, Mark Bufalino and Paul Galante will make their closing remarks in the death penalty hearing today. The hearing, before Luzerne County Judge Joseph Augello, is set to begin at 9:30 a.m.
ndobo@citizensvoice.com
BY NICHOLE DOBO
STAFF WRITER
WILKES-BARRE — Carrie Martin took disabled children on horseback rides, sang to her family and painted her mother’s nails.
Joseph Gacha Jr. quit school in the eighth grade, was beaten by bullies and began drinking with his father at age 5.
Jurors heard testimony Monday from the Gacha and Martin families in the death penalty hearing for Gacha, who was found guilty Friday of slaying the 20-year-old woman. Today, the jury may decide if Gacha, 29, deserves to die for his role in stabbing Martin nearly 50 times during a robbery in May 2004.
Defense witnesses detailed a childhood of abuse and neglect, in which Gacha and some of his siblings were sent to school in dirty clothes, forced to do hours of toe touches for punishment and beat with a coal shovel.
Gacha’s childhood had a direct impact on how he got to where he is today — fighting for his life after being convicted for premeditated murder, argued Defense Attorney John Pike during opening arguments of the death penalty hearing.
“Render Joe mercy,” Pike told the jury.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty because the murder occurred as Martin was being robbed, one of the legal requirements for a sentence of death in Pennsylvania. The defense sought Monday to provide the jury with evidence why Gacha, the father of four, should not be put to death.
A forensic psychologist who testified for the defense argued Gacha sustained a traumatic head injury that impairs Gacha’s ability to make rational decisions.
That head injury, along with a learning disability, and a personality and attention disorder, makes it difficult for Gacha to stop inappropriate behavior once it has begun, Dr. Jonathan Mack told the jury.
A court-appointed forensic psychiatrist disagreed.
The head injury did not damage Gacha’s brain and he does not have any psychotic symptoms, said Dr. John O’Brien, a forensic psychiatrist and an attorney. Gacha’s head injury — inflicted by an unknown assailant wielding a pipe when Gacha was 18 — fractured facial bones but there is no evidence it altered his brain functions, O’Brien said.
Four of Martin’s family members read the jury victim impact statements, detailing how their lives have changed after Martin, the reigning Luzerne County Fair queen, was killed.
Martin’s mother, Wendy Cadwalader, cries herself to sleep, her husband said. Martin’s grandmother, Donna Grey, worries about the “fear and terror” her granddaughter felt as she was slain. Martin’s stepfather, Chris Cadwalader, wonders how he will someday explain the murder to Martin’s little sister when she is grown.
“We live in an unjust world where something so brutal can happen to the most affectionate and genuine woman I’ve ever known,” Chris Cadwalader told the jury.
Three female jurors wept as Martin’s family testified, as did many sitting in the courtroom.
Several jurors also cried later in the day as Gacha’s brother, Christopher Howell, and sister, Amber Amos, told the jury of growing up in what they described as an abusive and alcoholic home life. They begged the jury to spare Gacha’s life.
“He’s my brother and I love him no matter what he did,” Howell told the jury before he began to sob.
Gacha, who has shown almost no emotion during the trial, began to dab his eyes with tissues as his family and the mother of one of his children testified for him. Gacha has vowed to appeal his conviction of first-degree murder.
Luzerne County assistant district attorneys William Finnegan and Jarrett Ferentino and Gacha’s defense team of Pike, Mark Bufalino and Paul Galante will make their closing remarks in the death penalty hearing today. The hearing, before Luzerne County Judge Joseph Augello, is set to begin at 9:30 a.m.
ndobo@citizensvoice.com