Juror says jury reluctantly supported execution

SAN JOSE -- One by one, solemn jurors filed into the courtroom Wednesday to

deliver Cary Stayner's fate: ''We, the jury, do determine that the penalty

shall be death.''

Stayner never stood, fidgeting in his chair as the court clerk read the

verdict recommending his execution for the February 1999 murders of North

Coast residents Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their Argentine

family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, near Yosemite National Park.

Nervously chomping a piece of gum, Francis Carrington, Carole Sund's father

and Juli's grandfather, dabbed away tears as all 12 jurors confirmed

individually they believe Stayner should pay with his life for killing the

Sunds and Pelosso.

No Stayner family members were present in the hushed courtroom, packed with

victims' relatives, the media and the public.

Jurors, escorted from court by sheriff's deputies, declined to speak with

reporters.

But one juror said later that the decision to impose the death penalty was

painful for the jury, a group of nine men and three women who listened to

often-disturbing testimony over the past three months.

''Nobody wants to be part of a death,'' said the juror, who asked not to be

identified. ''We made a decision for execution based upon the ground rules and

the facts, with some heart in it.''

Another juror said an initial vote was split on whether to spare Stayner's

life by recommending a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of

parole. The juror, who also requested anonymity, said the group debated

Stayner's mental illnesses but ultimately -- and reluctantly -- voted for

death because of the brutality of the murders.

Outside court before a throng of TV cameras and reporters, members of the

Sund and Carrington families hailed the verdict as just but took no joy in it.

''Condemning Cary Stayner to death is not happy for anybody,'' Carole

Carrington said. ''But it's justice.''

''It's been a long path,'' said an emotionally drained Francis Carrington.

''You get frustrated with our justice system, but after all is said and done,

I think justice has been done.''

The verdict will be appealed, as required in California death-penalty

cases, but also by Stayner's attorney, who said Judge Thomas Hastings erred

''from before the trial till now'' on issues including jury selection and

exclusion of evidence about Stayner's background.

''The fight won't be over for Cary Stayner until he gets a fair trial, and

he hasn't gotten a fair trial,'' lead defense attorney Marcia Morrissey said.

Moments after the verdict was announced, victims' family members quietly

hugged in the hallway and shed tears of relief that the three-month trial was

finally over.

Carole Carrington delivered the news to Raquel and Jose Pelosso, Silvina's

parents, with a phone call to Argentina. The Pelossos returned home last month

after jurors determined Stayner was sane at the time of the slayings.

Raquel ''thought the verdict was wonderful and she wishes she could be

standing here holding our hands,'' she said.

Jurors deliberated just under five hours, the same length it took for them

to convict Stayner, 41, of three first-degree murders, kidnapping and five

special circumstances that made him eligible for the death penalty. In just 2

1/2 hours, the jury rejected his insanity claims.

Hastings will review the jury's verdict and likely confirm it at a

sentencing hearing Dec. 12.

Although the formalities have yet to be worked out between federal and

state prison officials, Stayner likely will remain in state custody and

eventually be sent to Death Row, where he will reside while the years-long

appeals process plays itself out.

The victims' families were resigned to the prospect that Stayner's sentence

is many years from being carried out. Francis and Carole Carrington, at 68 and

70 years old, don't expect to be around for it.

Prosecutor George Williamson declined to comment on the verdict, his ninth

successful death penalty prosecution in as many cases.

In arguing for execution, prosecutors used Stayner's confession to the FBI,

made after he was picked up in connection with the decapitation of Yosemite

naturalist Joie Armstrong, 26, five months after the Sund-Pelosso killings.

In a deal to avoid a possible federal death sentence, Stayner pleaded

guilty to the Armstrong murder and accepted a life sentence. State prosecutors

refused to bargain in the Sund-Pelosso case.

Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge in the Mariposa County community of

El Portal, where Sund and the girls stayed during a holiday visit to Yosemite,

wasn't on law enforcement's radar screen when the tourists disappeared Feb.

15, 1999.

As the women remained missing for weeks, the FBI focused on a group

methamphetamine-using ex-cons in the Sierra Nevada foothills, one of whom

confessed the killings, then later recanted.

Stayner later told agents when he saw the women in the room through a crack

in their curtains, he knew they were vulnerable because there was no man

around. He said he had a recurrent fantasy of attacking, sexually assaulting

and killing women and girls but hadn't acted on the desire before.

But that night, he retrieved his ''kit'' that included duct tape, rope, a

knife and a gun. He said he tricked his way into their room by pretending to

check for a water leak, then pulled his gun and attacked them.

Stayner described in his confession how he sexually assaulted the girls,

strangled Pelosso and Carole Sund with a rope and later slashed Juli's throat.

Sund's burned out rental car was found on a rural hillside a month after

the women went missing, with Sund's and Pelosso's bodies in the trunk. Juli's

body was found a week later at a rural scenic overlook.

Stayner admitted he was the one who sent an anonymous note with a map to

Juli's body and the message, ''We had fun with this one,'' an effort to

mislead authorities.

Five months later, Stayner told agents, he spotted Armstrong alone and

vulnerable at her cabin inside Yosemite, and the urge to kill struck again.

Armstrong fought violently, forcing Stayner to leave a trail of evidence that

eventually led to his capture.

Stayner's defense conceded he killed the four victims, but claimed he was

insane at the time, saying his obsessive thoughts led to a psychotic break

with reality in which he couldn't control himself.

All four victims have North Coast connections.

Carole Sund was raised in Santa Rosa and attended Montgomery High School,

where she met her future husband, Jens. Her parents, Francis and Carole

Carrington, were successful real estate developers in Sonoma County for many

years before moving to Eureka.

Carole and Jens Sund also settled with their children in Eureka, where Juli

was born.

Carole Sund became friends with Silvina's mother as a high school exchange

student staying with Raquel Pelosso's family in Argentina.

Armstrong lived in Sonoma County briefly as a child and often visited her

maternal grandmother here. Her paternal grandfather still lives in the county.

She was buried in Sebastopol.

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

lcarter@pressdemocrat.com.