The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 88

Prosecutor Tells Jurors Christopher Is statement that he gave to you then let him go and walk the State Attorney Joseph D'Alesssan-dro told the jurors "But I submit to you that he is a "HE think this thing up until Thursday night" Assistant State Attorney Donald Pellecchia said "He wants you to believe that his 15-year-old daughter without shedding a tear ruthlessly killed her mother and a senile old Skillin 48 was Norma's adoptive mother and Ahern was the 59-year-old boyfriend Norma lived with the couple at the time of the slayings According to Norma's testimony she disliked Ahern for repeatedly fondling her and had fallen in love with her real father And that is the reason Christopher really killed Ahern Pellecchia said "He still hates George Pellecchia said his voice rising to a dramatic pitch "Why? Because he the protective father? No! Because George Ahern was messing around with his girl Norma BUT ASSISTANT Public Defender Robert Hines argued that final statement of innocence was the truth and that he had covered up for his daughter out of love "Here is a man who has been trying for nine months to save Norma's life" he said "Here is a man who was willing to sacrifice his own Hines also said prosecution attorneys hadn't proven within a reasonable doubt that Christopher had in Alleged Death Weapon closing arguments in murder trial Donald came during does Finally Hines said confession given to police in September 1977 was given unwillfully IVlIpccliia Show prosecutor's Grand Jury to Probe Shooting By ELISABETH BUMILLER Htrald SUff Wrinr Who lied? A 36-year-old double murder defendant with eight felonies on his record or his 15-year-old red-haired daughter who said her father was her lover? That is the decision a 12-member Collier County jury still made as it deliberated late Monday after the seven-day first-degree murder trial of William Christopher Jurors began deliberations at 2:23 pm and still hadn't reached a verdict when they recessed for dinner at 8:05 pm The eight men and four women were scheduled to resume deliberations at 9:30 pm CHRISTOPHER 36 is charged with the shooting deaths last year of Naples residents Bertha Skillin and George Ahern He has given three separate accounts of who killed the couple last Aug 31 at first claiming in the first of two tape-recorded statments given in September 1977 that Ahern shot Skillin then committed suicide But Christopher almost immediately changed his story and said he shot the couple And on Sunday Christopher changed his story again this time testifying to a stunned courtroom that his daughter Norma Sands shot the two and that he had lied for nine months to protect her Sands testified last week that Christopher told her the deaths were a murder-suicide In closing statements Monday prosecution attorneys attacked latest story as a fabrication and asked jurors to return a guilty verdict "If you believe the defendant's HUnTTn Police Probe IJotly Found in Grave An investigation is continuing into the identity of a woman whose nude body was found Saturday in a shallow grave near the 21-mile marker on Alligator Alley The body covered with lime was discovered by two campers Collier County sheriff's spokesmen said that lime speeds decomposition Chief Deputy Ray Barnett estimated the woman to be between 30 and 50 years old and believes she has been dead between three and six weeks "Judging from bruises on her head she appears to have died from head he said officers are checking missing person reports Firemen Cleared In Investigation A seven-month city investiga-f tion into the Naples Fire Department revealed Monday that firefighters correctly fought a November 1977 blaze that destroyed the Port Royal home of former City Councilman Arnold Lamm Lamm had called for the investigation after he said firefighters got lost on the lost on the way to his house and fought the fire incorrectly when they got there Lamm also said there adequate water pressure in Port Royal at the time to extinguish the blaze But the report by City Manager George Patterson indicates that there was adequate water pressure: that firefighters were at the scene five minutes after the call: and that they effectively put out the flames session of marijuana over five grams All are felonies in Florida Crews remained in serious condition for the two weeks that he was in Naples Community Hospital ALSO ARRESTED with Crews on May 20 was Naomi Dudley 53 of Rock Road She was charged with being an accessory and was released on a $500 bail Neither she nor father Frank could be reached for comment Monday spokesmen said they believe the father was Crews' closest relative In the last six months sheriff's deputies have wounded one man Not in Contempt Spectators Liked Trial Over TV By ELISABETH BUMILLER Herald Stall Writer Josephine Zastawski was in the Collier County Courthouse for a minor jury trial last week when she got hooked And how Her addiction was the first-degree murder trial of William Christopher a seven-day-long affair that rivaled the seamiest soap opera The tantalizing ingredients: alleged incest shotgun slayings medical examiners polygraphists and attorneys who shouted "Objection your just like on Perry Mason BUT TO Zastawski and scores of other curiosity seekers who cameto watch the trial was even better than Perry Mason or All My Children And that's because for once it was real "I wouldn't want to miss said Zatawski who even attended the trial Sunday after church services and a quick lunch "It's Lance Hooks 70 forfeited a day of reading in the shade and came to watch Sunday too "This is as hair-raising as any story you could read" he said "This is life isn't And another trial watcher gave up her Sunday afternoon bridge game for a second-row seat of the action thought come down to visit the she said then declined to give her name "Compared to the TV trials this is very dull but this is THEN THERE was Lois Small who figured she could go swimming in the Gulf any old time But a first-degree murder trial? Now something you see every day "I think this is an Small said "I've never been in a court before and I find it And finally there was Arndt Mueller who found the whole thing depressing tragic how lives get messed he said But like the others Mueller gave the trial a much better review than Perry Mason and his television cohorts Said Mueller: never believed Perry Mason 10 1 Found oap Pavilion Key Nearly half a ton of marijuana was found Sunday near Pavilion Key east of Everglades City Collier County officers were tipped off by a citizen who spotted the bales floating in the Gulf officers the Florida Marine Patrol and the Everglades Park Service assisted in the drug cleanup The 98 100-pound bales were found in waters near the Monroe County line I) Oil ills JACKS Edward of 200 Pebble Beach died Saturday Services will be held today at 11 AM at Trinity By The Cove Episcopal Church Pittman's Trail Chapel 3080 Tamiami Tr is charge of arrangements GARCIA Oavid A died Funeral Services will be held Alameda New Mexico with burial in Pena Bianca Cemetery CREWS Thomas A of Immokalee died Friday Funeral Services will be held today at 3 30 at the First Baptist Church tn Immokalee Burial wiH be in Lake TraMord Cemetery Pittman's Naples Chapel 850 6th Ave No is charge Of arrangements MARTIN Anthony of 5537 Calls St died Sunday Funeral Services will be held Thursday at 10 A at Pittman Trail Chapel 3080 Tamiemi Tr Entombment will be in the Naples Memorial Gardens Cemetery Mausole Hoh Joll llsloil terms such as "the McNaughtcn and "reasonable From time to time he would give his opinion on the case and point out contradictions in testimony case is open and shut" lie said at the trial's outset And Monday after both sides rested their cases he had the same opinion So it comes as no surprise that Bob wants to an attorney when he grows up just like his older brother Larry Like any good attorney however Bob is circumspect "I know if Ronny Zamora should have been convicted 1 missed some of the testimony" It doesn't bother Bob that there is a surplus of lawyers always room for one more good he said By BELLA ENGLISH Htrad Staff Writar State Attorney Joseph describing himself as "tired and from the week-long William Christopher murder trial said Monday he will turn an investigation into the recent death of a former Collier County prisoner over to a grand jury The investigation into the death of Thomas Albert Crews probably will go to the grand jury Friday D'Alessandro said Although the state office usually con- ducts investigations when sheriff's deputies use their guns stressed that sending the Crews case to a grand jury is not unusual no particular reason other than the fact that I just haven't had the time" said "Basically there were not witnesses in the Crews incident I'd rather have 18 people looking at it than just one CREWS 46 of Rock Road in Naples died Saturday from gunshot wounds suffered in an incident with Deputy Kris Brommeland The shooting occurred May 20 as Brommeland tried to capture Crews who had escaped from the Collier County Jail May 15 Brommeland said he stopped a car driven by Crews at about 9:30 pm as it swerved across Randall Boulevard in Golden Gate Crews fled into the woods where he picked up a cypress limb' and threatened the deputy with it according to Brommeland's report Brommeland said he was forced to shoot three times when Cews swung the limb at him One vas a warning shot the other two were fired into stomach BROMMELAND said he never Assistant State Attorney display fact committed the crime state has introduced a lot of physical evidence in this case" he said does any of the evidence prove the defendant killed these people? It was struck with the limb which he estimated to be about three inches wide and five feet long Bromme- land has been with the De-' partment for two and a half years When he escaped from jail Crews had been awaiting trial on charges of drunken driving driving without a license and resisting arrest with violence Sheriff's spokesmen have declined to give details of the resistance Crews a trusty or a prisoner with special privileges had walked away from his job in the jail's kitchen May 15 After the incident with Brommeland he was charged with aggravated assault escape and pos Matthews By BELLA ENGLISH Ktrsid Stall Writar George Matthews a Naples resident who makes filing lawsuits his pasttime was positively beaming Monday As he described it the two nights he spent last winter in the Collier County Jail will be the two most expensive nights the county has ever had And as is his habit1 Matthews said he will a judge and the county for false arrest and illegal imprisonment He also said that he will sue the judge for causing the death of his wife Ida who suffered from a heart ailment at the time of the hearing judge knew about this he said Mondavi holding up a letter from his physician warning that any shock could endanger her life "he still found me in aller Cronkile? A Strip-Tease Arlisl? Walter Cronkite that all-American man who tells you the way it is every week night is really a closet strip-tease artist Furlhermore his daughter got married barefoot And horrors did you know that he is a real slob? Well that's the way it is at least according to YOSHI KATO who moved to Naples from New York City five years ago after having been the Cronkites' butler for several years Kato cooked sewed drove gardened and in general lived with the Cronkites until he discovered Naples while on vacation five years ago It was goodby Walter and Kato now owns an oriental gift shop on First Avenue South Kato beams when speaking of Cronkite and stresses that his remarks are in no way meant to be derogatory he was very happy you know after a few drinks he would imitate a strip-teaser like Kato says twitching his hips and undoing an imaginary zipper was better than Gypsy Rose Lee Walter he says course he never took his clothes Kato keeps a scrapbook of Cronkite and company in his shop which he proudly shows to anyone who wants to see Yep Kato playing bumper pool with Walter fitting a wedding dress on his daughter Kathy and so jurors should discount it as evidence "If you reject the Hines said "there is no other evidence beyond a reasonable and killed two in shootouts On Dec 16 1977 three deputies shot down Milton Shows 60 of Price Street when Shows allegedly fired a shotgun at them wife Emma has said that the shooting was unjustified and deliberate A state attorney's investigation determined the shooting was in self defense Three days after the Shows incident three deputies injured farmworker Tommie Bowman 31 during a shootout near Sonny Boy's Bar in Immokalee A state attorney's investigation also cleared them of any violations ing a state statute that disqualifies judges from hearing cases to which they are a party The incident stemmed from a suit filed last fall by Matthews in which he called Wehle a "vindictive capricious retired judge sans scruples and That suit charged that constitutional rights had been violated when Wehle declined to hear another suit by Matthews which Wehle said he was not qualified to hear Wehle said Monday that he disagrees with the higher court's decision on the contempt charges "The court misapplied the decision by the Supreme Court that anything said in a pleading can't be the subject of a suit if it has a bearing on an alleged claim in the he said disagree that what he said had a bearing on the original (fPiu JSlamlomnaicr Control booth at the Collier County Courthouse It is what else? the American flag picture that hung proudly in his Ann Arbor office Trial TajkiT Is 1 1 And ears Urates He stuck out in the courtroom crowd this freckle-faced bespectacled youth whose three-piece navy suit and braces on his teeth seemed contradictory During recesses in the William Christopher murder trial which he attended faithfully for nearlv a week 14-year-old BOB JOHNSTON could be heard discussing legal 4 By Elisabeth Bumiller and Bella English Pftnni)le contempt and my wife had no one to care for THESE ARE the events that led to Matthew's latest threat: A state appeals court ruled recently that Matthews was not in contempt of court when he described retired Circuit Judge Victor Wehle as reputed hatchet judge" and "hit N- Matthews had served two days of a 30-day jail sentence imposed by Wehle for statements "directed against the authority and dignity oP the court" He was also fined $500 Matthews was released from jail when the Lakeland court in an emergency hearing ruled that Matthews had the right to appeal his contempt conviction Matthews had defended himself during the contempt hearing by cit puttering around in the oriental garden which he designed EvDeleclivc Keeps Tabs oil Pels Aon As director of Collier Countv Animal Control GENE STAUDEN-MAIER spends his days keeping tabs on the estimated 17000 cats and dogs in the area Ten years ago Staudenniaier spent his days keeping tabs on thousands of University of Michigan college students prone to demonstrating during the late sixties I wasn't into a riot every other day I didn't know what the hell was going says Stauden-maier an alleged 39 program was to maintain peace and tranquility throughout the Or more specifically program was to head the Deiective Bureau of the Ann Arbor Police Department As chief detective he met lots of now-legendary sixties people who came to UM like Jerry Rubin Abbie Hoffman Tom Hayden Timothy Ieary Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead Staudenmaier claims he got along with these former radical leaders and rock and folk singers just fine understood their program and I made sure they understood my program" he chuckles But things are quieter now with the dogs and cats and Staudenmaier reports that his "retirement" to Naples is most satisfactory Meanwhile a remnant from those wilder years hangs outside the Animal BELLA ENGLISH Miami Herald Bureau (Inuikilc (ommcnlarics butler talks about the celebrity Kit to Willi Cni of former newscaster's.