Appeal from Stayner’s parents: Mother, father take stand for first time to ask jury to spare son, describe killer as quiet, unobtrusive child

SAN JOSE -- If Cary Stayner's death could restore the lives he took, ''I

say do it,'' his mother said in a tearful appeal to jurors Thursday.

''But executing Cary is not going to bring back those people. They're gone

and there's no bringing them back,'' Kay Stayner said, pleading with the jury

to spare her son from death by lethal injection.

Stayner's father, too, begged the nine men and three women on the panel to

sentence Stayner to life in prison as punishment for murdering Santa Rosa

native Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and family friend Silvina

Pelosso, 16, in February 1999 near Yosemite National Park.

''I want him to live,'' said Delbert Stayner, gazing at the jury.

The same jurors in August convicted Stayner of the murders and later

rejected his claim of insanity.

In their first appearance at their son's 12-week-old trial, Stayner's

parents testified as the defense penalty-phase case began winding down. Jurors

are expected to begin deliberating early next week.

Both parents struggled, but kept their composure as they told jurors about

their emotionally stifled household, which was further shattered in 1972 when

their youngest boy, Steven, then 7, was kidnapped off a Merced street by a

child molester and held for seven years.

The abduction pushed an already solitary Cary Stayner, then 11, deeper into

his own world, Kay Stayner said. ''He felt responsible. He was the big

brother,'' she explained.

Delbert Stayner became obsessed with finding Steven, even carting the

family on vacations to pass out fliers and investigate tips about who might

have taken him. The father of five acknowledged he neglected his other

children, especially Cary, during those years.

''At that time, he really needed his papa, and I was concerned about

Stevie,'' Delbert Stayner said, trying to stave off tears. ''I hardly even

talked to him. I yelled at him.''

Stayner appeared to wipe away tears and looked down during most of his

parents' time on the stand.

In seeking the death penalty, prosecutors played hours of Stayner's

audio-taped confession to the FBI, in which he explained fantasizing about,

planning, carrying out and trying to cover up the killings.

Armstrong tortured

Prosecutors showed graphic autopsy and crime scene photos of the Sunds,

Pelosso and Stayner's fourth victim, Yosemite guide Joie Armstrong, 26, whom

Stayner decapitated after a violent struggle near her cabin in July 1999.

Prosecutors said four sets of superficial horizontal knife wounds to her neck

showed Stayner tortured Armstrong because she would not submit to his demands.

Stayner is serving a life term with no possibility of release for that

killing, a factor jurors are allowed to consider in sentencing along with

mitigating factors the defense offered.

After putting on weeks of expert testimony about Stayner's various mental

illnesses, defense lawyers called nine relatives in the past week in an effort

to humanize him.

Stayner's three sisters testified briefly Thursday about their chaotic

family life, but much of what they tried to say was blocked by the judge who

said it was becoming repetitive.

''He's not the monster that people have said he is,'' his mother said,

describing Cary as the ideal child: loving, quiet, self-sufficient and seldom

in trouble.

Hair-pulling compulsion

Family photos displayed Thursday showed Stayner as a toddler with his dog

and as a smiling school kid with a patchy scalp, the result of the

hair-pulling compulsion he has had his whole life.

''He is a wonderful human being,'' both parents said.

''Cary is one of the nicest persons you ever met,'' Delbert Stayner said.

''He never talked back to his daddy and always remembered birthdays.''

''My son is sick right now,'' Delbert Stayner told jurors, to which

prosecutor George Williamson objected. ''He's still sick,'' Stayner finished

sharply.

Jurors appeared interested but mostly impassive during the Stayners'

testimony, in sharp contrast to when relatives of the Sunds and Pelosso

testified about their loss.

Francis and Carole Carrington, Carole Sund's parents and Juli's

grandparents, said they don't completely blame the Stayners for their son's

actions.

''Any good mother or father would fight for their son and I can respect

that,'' Francis Carrington said.

''I can't help feeling sorry for them,'' he said. ''But Cary did what he

did. He showed no sympathy for my daughter, my granddaughter or Silvina.

''It's time for justice to be done.''

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 521-5205 or

lcarter@pressdemocrat.com.