Post by Joanna on May 10, 2015 10:59:38 GMT -5
Woman Kills Two Men and Feeds Them to Pigs
MEDFORD, Ore. – Susan Monica, 66, who dismembered two men and fed them to her pigs is now serving a sentence of a least 50 years. During sentencing in a Jackson County courtroom, the Judge Tim Barnack described the convicted serial murderer as a “cold-blooded killer.”
Monica, of Wimer, Oregon, was silent while the jury announced its unanimous verdicts of guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of abuse of a corpse in the 2012 death and dismemberment of Stephen Delicino, 59, and the September 2013 death and dismemberment of handyman Robert Haney, 56. Both men died of gunshot wounds and were fed to the pigs on Monica’s 20-acre ranch in southwestern Oregon, where she welded wrought iron fences and gates.
In January 2014, what remained of the men, which had not been consumed by the hogs, were found on Monica’s farm, located off West Evans Creek Road. Although she was interviewed for 18 hours and on trial for six days, she never confessed to killing the two men. Referring to the fact she told detectives she was afraid her pigs would be put down if she notified authorities of the deaths, the judge said, “You value pigs more than you value people.”
The sentence could have been decided on a later date, but the newly-convicted killer requested the judge impose it immediately after the jury’s dismissal, saying, “It doesn’t seem to matter.” Before her sentence was read, Monica spoke to the family of Haney, who disappeared in 2013. She stuck to her claim that she did not feed his remains to her pigs, but instead found Haney disemboweled and near death in her pig pen being eaten alive by the hogs. She said she could not bear to inform his family of how he died and shot the handyman to end his suffering, which isn’t recognized as a defense under Oregon law.
She claimed to have killed Delicino in self-defense, while the two were struggling in the barn, with five shots to the head. She had previously said Delicino committed suicide by shooting himself in the head five times. The jury rejected both of her stories and the 10 men and two women took only an hour to elect a foreperson and make a decision.
Prosecutors arguing the case focused on the varying accounts of the murders given by Monica, which seemed to line up with what investigators had discovered or were about to find out. Her attorney, Christine Herbert, admitted that representing Monica was difficult because she seemed unable to remain silent. Following her arrest, the Oregon woman sent letters to the local newspaper and even wrote “from Jackson County’s sweetest murderer, Susan Monica” on a fellow inmate’s birthday greeting card.
Monica’s attorneys acknowledged their client’s odd behavior at times, which included threatening to kill people and feeding their remains to her pigs. “Just because Susan Monica is different and strange and weird doesn’t make her a murderer,” Herbert insisted. Monica’s strangeness was evident in the court room. As the jury was preparing to retire for deliberations, Monica rose to her feet and asked the judge to allow her to show the jury how she had shot Delicino in the head. Although Barnack attempted to ignore her, Monica raised her hands in the air and said, “I held the gun like this,” before being escorted out of the courtroom.
Not quite two hours later, Monica returned to the court room to hear the jury’s decision and learn her fate. Barnack then sentenced the Oregon woman to consecutive life terms with a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years for both murders. On her other convictions, she was credited for time served in jail.
Although Monica attempted to fire her defense attorneys mid-trial for attempting to search for records of prior mental health issues, Herbert said she plans to appeal her client’s conviction.
Source: Jennifer Pfalz, Liberty Village, April 22, 2015.
