Stayner cries at murder hearing: Victims’ families scoff at defendant’s ‘crocodile tears’

MARIPOSA -- Convicted killer Cary Stayner, already in prison for the rest

of his life for beheading one woman, cried in court Tuesday and plugged his

ears in an apparent effort to avoid hearing grisly testimony of how he

allegedly murdered three others.

Stayner's emotion, in the second day of a preliminary hearing in Mariposa

County Superior Court, was the first publicly shown by the 39-year-old former

Yosemite-area handyman during legal proceedings in the 1999 slayings of Carole

Sund, her daughter Juli and their Argentine friend, Silvina Pelosso.

The victims' families, though, scoffed at Stayner's behavior.

''They were crocodile tears,'' said Carole Carrington of Eureka, Carole

Sund's mother. ''I honestly feel like he is one of those guys like Ted Bundy,

who actually don't feel the same emotions the rest of us do. He doesn't feel

remorse or guilt about things.''

Private emotions bubbled to the surface for family members of all three

women during graphic testimony from forensic experts and a pathologist who

conducted the autopsies.

As FBI agent Christopher Hopkins described in detail the positions of

Carole Sund and Pelosso's bodies as found in the trunk of their charred rental

car, Sund and Pelosso family members clung to each other and struggled to hold

back tears.

Jose Pelosso, sitting with his daughter, Paula, reached forward and grasped

his wife Raquel's outstretched hand across the back of her wooden seat.

The preliminary hearing was expected to last all week. But attorneys said

it might conclude today, after the prosecution team plays a tape recording of

Stayner's confession to FBI agents.

In the statement, Stayner reportedly details how he killed each of the

three women -- strangling Carole Sund, 42, and Pelosso, 16, at their motel,

then sexually assaulting Juli, 15, before driving her to Lake Don Pedro and

slitting her throat.

Authorities said Stayner admitted the crimes after he was arrested in

connection with the decapitation slaying of Joie Armstrong, a naturalist in

Yosemite National Park, five months after the Sund-Pelosso killings.

He also confessed to her killing, and agreed to a life sentence in federal

prison to avoid a possible death sentence in that case.

In court Tuesday, Hopkins described Carole Sund's rental car as completely

scorched when agents found it, having been led to it by a Long Barn man who

spotted it hidden in the hills a month after the women disappeared.

''We found ... charred human remains,'' he said. ''We saw what appeared to

be two human beings, somewhat co-mingled in the trunk.''

Hopkins also detailed other evidence found near the car, including

headphones, a CD player, Carole Sund's purse, a pair of Juli's tennis shoes

and a rope -- apparently the one Stayner told FBI agents he used to strangle

the two women.

Stayner became noticeably bothered by the testimony when Hopkins began

describing how Juli Sund's body was discovered at a vista point at Lake Don

Pedro, a week after the burned car was found.

Stayner buried his face in his clasped hands and sat motionless.

Later, he put his hands over his ears and rocked slightly in his wooden

chair.

Although family members were briefed on the evidence before court, the

Carringtons said it is difficult to hear the women described so clinically.

''We hear 'victim one' and 'victim two' and 'item one' and 'item two.' To

me, it's a person, and it does hurt,'' said Francis Carrington, Carole Sund's

father.

Prosecutors connected Stayner to the crimes with a fingerprint taken from a

stamp on the envelope of an anonymous letter Stayner is believed to have sent

the FBI.

The letter, which read, ''We had fun with this one,'' contained a drawing

of Lake Don Pedro and a map of where to find Juli Sund's body.

''It is extremely difficult to visualize anyone doing the things he did,''

Francis Carrington said after the testimony. ''A serial killer must get

pleasure out of this or something. I don't understand why they do it.''

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

lcarter@pressdemocrat.com.