Mom Sentenced in Daughter Murder

[Greta Johannson]

Jurors convict Kiser in death of daughter
Tesslynn O'Cull's mother faces life in prison at today's sentencing
hearing for her role in the torture-murder of the 3-year-old
Friday April 30, 1999
By Debra Gwartney, Correspondent, The Oregonian
EUGENE -- The mother of Tesslynn O'Cull intentionally aided in the
torture death of the 3-year-old Springfield girl and now must face life
in prison, a Lane County jury decided Thursday.
Stella Kiser, 23, was found guilty of aggravated murder, murder by abuse
by neglect and abuse of a corpse by the 10-woman, two-man jury, which
deliberated for 4½ hours. All 12 jurors found Kiser guilty of the two
murder charges.
Kiser's earlier trial on the three charges resulted in a hung jury.
A sentencing hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. today will determine whether
Kiser will receive life in prison without parole or life in prison with
the possibility of parole.
In six days of testimony in her second trial, witnesses described how
Kiser and her then-boyfriend, Jesse Caleb Compton, 21, systematically
abused Tesslynn and kept her tied up in the bedroom of their apartment
for 10 hours at a time.
The couple held parties nearly every night, during which
methamphetamine, alcohol and marijuana were used. Witnesses said Compton
and Kiser bound the malnourished and severely beaten child with ropes so
she could not interfere with the parties.
On June 13, 1997, after a particularly brutal beating, Kiser tied the
child. The couple found Tesslynn dead early the next morning and tried
to revive her by applying live electrical wires to her chest and
throwing cold water in her face.
Compton and Kiser then put the child's body in a laundry basket and
buried her in woods outside Sweet Home. Springfield police, acting on a
tip, found the body days later. Compton and Kiser were arrested and
charged with aggravated murder.
Kiser, who cried earlier in the week during her mother's testimony
concerning Kiser's abused childhood, did not respond to the verdict.
During closing arguments Thursday morning, Kiser turned her chair
sideways and brushed her hair forward so the jury could not see her
face.
The jury found the state had proved that Kiser purposely had engaged in
acts of sustained physical harm toward the child through aiding and
abetting Compton. The jury also found that Kiser showed an extreme
indifference to the value of human life.
The defense had argued that Kiser was the sadistic Compton's prisoner,
living in fear of his violence and incapable of making good decisions
for herself or her child. An expert witness called by the defense
testified that Kiser suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome caused
by violence in her past, including her father's suicide.
Compton, now on Oregon's Death Row for the crime, was convicted for
extensively burning Tesslynn with a propane torch, breaking her back,
punching her so hard she suffered abdominal bleeding, hitting her around
the head and causing other injuries that led to her death.
Bob Gorham, Lane County deputy district attorney, told the jury that in
witnessing those acts and by failing to provide medical treatment for
Tesslynn, Kiser shared responsibility for the murder.
"There are two causes for this death," Gorham said. "His actions and her
inactions."