UPDATE: Woman Murdered Delivering Food to Poor Family
Maggie
penalty is a really, really good idea. Here's one:
By Victoria Harker
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 3, 1999
In a small, sweet voice, the little girl described the day she watched her
daddy kill the "church lady" who came to their home to bring them free food.
"He grabbed her from behind . . . he tied her up," the 9-year-old told a police
officer the day after her parents, Kara and John Sansing, robbed and murdered
Trudy Calabrese.
When asked whether the woman said anything, the girl nodded and replied, "God,
just help me."
Calabrese, 41, a devout Christian, had brought two food boxes to the Sansings
home on Alice Street in west Phoenix on a cold and rainy day in February 1998.
As Calabrese chatted with Kara Sansing and her children in the kitchen, John
Sansing came up behind her and "body slammed" her, one of the boys told police.
On Monday, a chilling videotape of police interviews with the little girl and
two of her three brothers was played in Maricopa County Superior Court during a
presentence hearing for John Sansing.
Judge Ronald Reinstein will decide in September whether John Sansing will
receive the death penalty for robbing, raping, strangling and stabbing
Calabrese.
In the videotape, all three children told police in matter-of-fact voices that
they watched their parents tie Calabrese up with electrical cords.
They listened as she begged for her life and pleaded to God, they told police.
The woman also pleaded with the children three or four times to call the police
and 911. Instead, they obeyed their parents' orders to go watch cartoons, said
William Culbertson, deputy county attorney.
One of the boys talked of seeing Calabrese's tears, of hearing his father
threaten to hit her if she didn't stop moving.
He remembered hearing the blow to the back of her skull. He saw the blood on
her head, and her body after it was moved to the backyard shed.
His parents planned to rob the church worker the day before the murder, the boy
told police.
"They wanted money," he said.
"Did she have any money?" the officer asked.
"She had some change," the boy said. "A dollar twenty-five."
Trudy Calabrese
Kara Sansing, 28, also took the stand Monday to testify against her husband as
part of her plea agreement. Between sobs, she recounted every grisly detail of
the murder - and Calabrese's final prayer: "God, I don't want to die. But if
this is the way you want me to come, I'm ready."
Kara said she did nothing to try and save Calabrese when her husband left to
drive her truck somewhere else, so no one would know she was still there.
She testified of watching her husband rape Calabrese while she was hogtied in
their bed. Her children listened in the living room.
Then he stabbed Calabrese in the abdomen, at least twice, Kara said. She saw
him push the knife into her and "grinding" it hard, she said.
John then threw a pile of clothes over the lifeless body, and it remained on
the bed for several hours. The children saw that, too, Kara testified.
An hour or two after the murder, John called their drug dealer and purchased
some crack cocaine with some of Calabrese's jewelry. A few hours later, he
called the dealer again and bought more cocaine with the rest, a ring and a
necklace.
Kara sobbed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue during her testimony. In
jailhouse stripes with part of her long, dark hair pulled back, she became
overwhelmed with emotion several times and had to pause before she could answer
Culbertson's questions.
John, 32, stroked his chin several times and stared at his wife with little
expression on his face. When she recounted Calabrese's last prayer, his face
reddened, his eyes cast downward.
When Culbertson brought out the large wooden stick used to beat Calabrese over
the head, John shielded his eyes and looked away.
As Kara was led from the courtroom, she broke into loud sobs.
John was led out of the courtroom immediately afterwards, and he became
irritated and spoke loudly that there better be more than one deputy to take
him back to jail. Relatives called out to him, "Take care, buddy" and "Johnny,
calm down."
Family members were solemn and unwilling to talk, except for a brief statement
from Sansing's mother.
"It was drugs," she said in between tears. "I would have given anything if this
day hadn't come. I can't say anymore."
Rosario Calabrese, Trudy's husband, strode quickly from the courtroom, flanked
by friends.
Trudy Calabrese, an Avondale mother of two, was a volunteer food worker for her
Glendale church, Living Springs Assembly of God, 6532 N. El Mirage Road.
Friends said she always had a smile on her face and cared little for monetary
things. She took a food box to a hungry family because she strove to live, not
just utter, her religious beliefs, they said.
During a jailhouse interview in January, John Sansing said he is not a crazy or
violent person and blamed the murder on his drug addiction. He ended up killing
Calabrese to put her out of her misery, he said.
On Monday, however, his wife testified that he raped and beat her to make it
look like she was a victim of a vicious robbery.
John has said that four days before the killing, he and his wife had gone
through $2,000 worth of crack cocaine. They had spent all the money they had
and had traded everything they could for more cash to buy drugs.
John said he had smoked a $20 rock of crack cocaine the day of the killing and
wanted more.
He stated that he entered a plea agreement to first-degree murder without
trying to negotiate a deal with prosecutors, because he wanted to save his
wife's life. She is the victim of years of abuse at his hands, he told The
Republic.
Kara Sansing has entered a plea agreement for first-degree murder. She will
receive 25 years to life when sentenced.
The couple's four children, who range in age from 9 to 13, are in foster care.
Maggie
"This would be a great country if you could keep the Republicans out of the
bedroom and the Democrats out of the boardroom."--Lowell Weicker
CBofGDALE
matter of transportation the church could have sent them a few bus tokens.