Stayner’s stress described: Defense psychiatrist says killer had no control over his actions

SAN JOSE -- A defense expert testified Tuesday that Cary Stayner was

''significantly, severely and clearly'' impaired by mental problems and unable

to stop his homicidal impulses.

Psychiatrist Jose Silva, a key defense witness in the guilt phase of the

now 12-week-long trial, told jurors that although Stayner was legally sane

when he murdered three North Coast tourists, he couldn't control himself.

The distinction is one jurors may consider when they determine whether

Stayner, 41, should spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed for

the February 1999 murders of Santa Rosa native Carole Sund, 42, her daughter,

Juli, 15, and their family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, outside Yosemite

National Park.

The same jury convicted Stayner of the murders and rejected his insanity

defense, setting up the penalty phase.

Over the past several days, Stayner's lawyers have called dozens of his

family members, friends, associates and former co-workers to try to show

Stayner is more than a cold-blooded killer, as the prosecution has portrayed

him.

Silva addressed two specific instructions the jury will receive before

weighing Stayner's fate -- whether he committed the crimes under extreme

mental or emotional disturbance, and whether his ability to conform his

conduct to the law was impaired by mental disease or defect.

As a result of cumulative, cascading stress in his life, Stayner's

impulse-control abilities were significantly disabled, Silva testified. He

said Stayner was mentally ill from an early age and grew up in a family

ill-equipped to help him.

Silva charted Stayner's life with a graph of peaks and valleys highlighting

traumas including a molestation at age 11, his brother's kidnapping that same

year, his brother's return after seven years in the hands of a pedophile, his

uncle's murder and the Sund-Pelosso murders.

Steven Stayner was 7 years old in 1972 when he was snatched off the street

by a child molester, who created a public father-son life with his young

victim. The pair lived in Santa Rosa and Ukiah until 1980, when Kenneth

Parnell kidnapped another young boy.

Steven Stayner took the boy, Timmy White, to a Ukiah police station and was

hailed a hero, with TV movies and books telling his tale. Meanwhile, the other

Stayner children were neglected and foundered in a home bereft of emotional

support, several witnesses testified.

That stress is a mitigating factor the jury should use to return a verdict

of life in prison instead of a death sentence, defense attorney Michael Burt

argued.

Stayner is serving a federal life sentence for murdering Yosemite nature

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

Also Tuesday, additional character witnesses testified that they knew

Stayner as a quiet, helpful and respectful man in the years before the

murders.

Former co-worker Sandra Roman said she once described Stayner as the kind

of man she would want her daughter to marry.

Another woman testified that in 1999 when she was 17, a 37-year-old Stayner

began paying attention to her at Cedar Lodge, where they both worked. After

Stayner was arrested, she told investigators it made her uncomfortable, though

in court she said the only time she felt that way around him was when he

stopped to take a nude swim when he was driving her home from work one day.

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

lcarter@pressdemocrat.com.