Covenant: Possibly the real story (2/2)
Gzenon
Part 2:
The following is a compilation of newspaper articles detailing
the case of Sam Kastanis, whose case is somewhat similar (though
there are notable differences) to Covenant.
My research uncovered some 200 articles; I only grabbed ones that
provided different pieces of the puzzle. Editing was minimal--
only that which was repeated word for word was omitted.
There's a lot here, yet so much left unanswered.
The Salt Lake Tribune, Copyright 1993
Saturday, July 10, 1993, Local
KASTANIS DESCRIBES WIFE'S OBSESSION KASTANIS TELLS OF WIFE'S
OBSESSION WITH NEIGHBOR
HUSBAND FLATLY DENIES MURDERING HIS WIFE OR ANY OF HIS CHILDREN
Stephen Hunt THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
"Mr. Kastanis, did you kill any one of your children or your
wife on Nov. 17, 1991?" asked defense attorney Ron Yengich.
Sam George Kastanis replied with an emphatic, "No!"
Mr. Kastanis then calmly began telling of events leading to
the deaths of his family.
The trial -- which has focused on conflicting circumstantial
evidence -- could hinge on how believable Mr. Kastanis appears to
the jury.
He spent an hour testifying Friday afternoon, and will take the
witness stand again Monday.
Mr. Kastanis told of meeting his future wife, Margaret Jenkins,
some 18 years ago while both were playing in a band. They dated
for several years, married, bought a house in West Jordan and had
children.
"It was a good relationship," Mr. Kastanis told the 3rd
District Court jury. "I loved her. She loved me. We always talked
things out, always."
"Did you ever fight?" Mr. Yengich asked.
"Never."
The defendant also spoke briefly about each of his dead
children.
"Melissa, my oldest daughter, she could con me out of anything.
She was the ringleader of the bunch," Mr. Kastanis said.
"Clint was a loner. He reminded me a lot of me.
"Chrissy was the tease of the family."
Mr. Kastanis said he and his wife enjoyed working together on
home-improvement projects. And like many modern families, they
shared household chores.
"I washed clothes and dishes," Mr. Kastanis said. "And I'm one
in 50 who'd change messy pants on a kid."
Mr. Kastanis -- a Salt Lake County public works employee for 20
years -- described himself as a quiet man who only "sometimes"
shows his emotions.
He enjoyed his family, but otherwise kept to himself, he said.
"I always said, a good fence makes good neighbors."
His wife was more outgoing. "She was like the neighborhood
Welcome Wagon lady," Mr. Kastanis said. "She was always involved
with helping people."
Mr. Kastanis said he first noticed a change in his wife about
the middle of 1990, after the death of a nephew, who was close to
Mrs. Kastanis.
"She started staying up late at night. She just had to keep
going; she couldn't sit down," he said. "One night, she painted
the grout in our bathroom."
But Mrs. Kastanis' behavior became stranger about six months
later, after befriending Heidi Green at an LDS Relief Society
meeting. Ms. Green left the church in tears, and Mrs. Kastanis
followed to see if she could help.
Soon she was spending most of her time with the woman. And --
for the first time in their marriage -- Mrs. Kastanis began
keeping secrets from her husband.
Even after Mr. Kastanis learned that Ms. Green had
multiple-personality disorder, he was at first unconcerned.
"Margaret just wanted to help people, and I didn't want to stop
her," he said. "A couple of times, I asked what was going on.
Margaret said, 'Sam, I can't tell, it's in confidence, you've got
to have faith in me.'
"I accepted it," Mr. Kastanis said.
In fact, for the Christmas of 1990, Mr. Kastanis and his wife
gave $500 to the financially strapped Ms. Green. Later they gave
her their second car.
"It seemed like everything she would do was geared to Heidi,"
Mr. Kastanis said. "Her mind was on one narrow path."
Even on a vacation trip to Wendover, "the only thing she could
talk about was Heidi," he said.
By the summer of 1991, his wife "seemed to withdraw from people
a lot" and lost interest in church and school activities, Mr.
Kastanis said. "She wanted to be alone. She didn't have much to
say."
Several times, Mr. Yengich asked the defendant if he ever
became angry at his wife's behavior.
"No," Mr. Kastanis said. "I figured she knew what she was
doing."
But psychiatrist Steven Methner said Mrs. Kastanis was in the
grips of a severe depression that, like cancer, was "eating away
her mind."
Her death and the deaths of her children are consistent with
other cases in which mothers killed themselves and their
children, he said. That occurs when suicidal mothers believe
their children cannot get along without them.
"As crazy as it sounds," said Dr. Methner, "Mrs. Kastanis had
the welfare of the children at heart."
------------------------
The Salt Lake Tribune, Copyright 1993
Thursday, July 15, 1993, Nation-World
JURY CLEARS KASTANIS OF KILLINGS, BUT THROWS BOOK AT PROSECUTION
Stephen Hunt THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
Cries of joy filled the courtroom as the first "not guilty"
verdict was announced Wednesday afternoon.
As the second innocent verdict was read, Sam George Kastanis
wiped his eyes.
By the time the third and fourth verdicts were announced,
there was hardly a dry eye in the courtroom -- and the jury of
six women and six men also was in tears.
"The truth is the truth," said Mr. Kastanis moments later.
"I've waited a year and a half for this."
After eight hours of jury deliberation, he was acquitted of
four counts of capital murder in the stabbing and bludgeoning
deaths of his wife and three young children on Nov. 17, 1991.
Mr. Kastanis said he planned to "get a good night's sleep and
be with family and friends."
A red-eyed Orren Jenkins, Mr. Kastanis' father-in-law, said:
"That jury just gave us our son back. He's all we've got left of
his and Margaret's family."
An hour later, Mr. Kastanis, 45, left the Salt Lake County Jail
-- where he has spent the past 10 months -- a free man.
"This is the beginning of Sam Kastanis' new life," said defense
attorney Ron Yengich. "It'll be a hard life, but he's the kind of
man who can live that kind of life and go on."
Mr. Yengich managed to cast doubt on most of the state's
evidence.
He claims Margaret Kastanis killed Melissa, 11, Clinton, 9, and
Christine, 6, and then herself while in the grip of severe
depression and psychotic delusions.
At the start of their deliberations, at least 10 jurors
believed Mr. Kastanis was innocent, said juror Trent Oliphant.
"It wasn't a unanimous decision that he was innocent, but
legally we could not convict him," Mr. Oliphant said. "One thing
we agreed on was the sloppiness of how the case was investigated
and prosecuted."
Police and prosecutors "only looked for things that supported
their case," he said. "We felt it was a very slipshod job, that
there were things blatantly wrong that they did "
Juror Joyce Gardner said she doubted the state's case
immediately after opening arguments. "By the end of the fourth
week, I was very solidified."
She said she was "disgusted" by the state's unsubstantiated
claim Mr. Kastanis suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome from
serving as a radio repairman during the Vietnam War.
"And the video," said Ms. Gardner, referring to a
computer-animated version of the state's murder theory, "we were
all disgusted by that. It ought to have been better done and
based on facts."
Both jurors were appalled at Oregon blood-spatter expert Rod
Englert, who claimed to be "110% certain" Mr. Kastanis was the
killer. "No other witness gave that assurance," Mr. Oliphant
said.
Mr. Oliphant said he wished he could contact Mr. Kastanis. "I'd
say, 'I love you, I feel for you and I understand you have gone
through a lot of pain and I'm sorry.' "
Outside the 3rd District courtroom, the dead woman's family
said they never doubted Mr. Kastanis' innocence.
"You just have to know him," said mother-in-law Frances
Jenkins.
But family members have trouble believing Mrs. Kastanis, 39,
was the killer.
"I don't like to think Margaret killed those children," said
her father. "I don't know what happened," said her brother,
Doyle Jenkins. "Nobody knows what happened. Nobody is alive who
was there."
The Jenkins were among about a dozen family members who
attended the 4 1/2-week trial.
"We needed to be supportive," said Doyle's wife, Kathy Jenkins.
"But we needed to be here for our peace of mind, too."
Sherilyn Idle, the defendant's sister-in-law, was unsure Mr.
Kastanis could return to a normal life. "What would be normal
after going through all this? He doesn't have a family, a house,
a car."
Before his bail was revoked in September 1992, Mr. Kastanis
lived with his sister, Helen Pavich, in Sandy. And he continued
working as a heavy-equipment operator for Salt Lake County. It is
uncertain if his job still is available.
Mr. Yengich said his client has been bankrupted fighting the
state's allegations.
Salt Lake County Prosecutor Kent Morgan estimated it cost
$100,000 to try the case, including $10,000 to produce the
computer-animated video.
"We worked hard for two years," he said. "We don't bring cases
to trial we don't believe in."
Tribune reporters Norma Wagner and Michael Phillips contributed
to this report.
------------------------
CRESCENT--Orren Leonard Jenkins, 67, died September 24, 1993 at
his home in Crescent of long-time heart disease complications.
He was born January 15, 1926 in Midvale, Utah to Washington B.
and Eddley Charter Jenkins. He was a veteran of World War II
where he served in the Navy. On September 25, 1946 he married
Frances May in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Orren was a member of
the LDS Church where he held various positions. He will always be
remembered for his clever wit and laugh. Dad enjoyed farming,
playing the guitar and piano by ear, and was very mechanically
inclined. His greatest joy was watching his family grow and
helping them to become the best that they could be. He taught us
all the meaning of work, life and love.
Survivors: Wife, Frances; sons, Glenn (Kathlene); Douglas
(Renay); Doyle (Kathy); daughters, Marian (Gary) Griffiths;
Sherilyn (Robert) Idle; son-in-law, Sam Kastanis; 17
grandchildren and one great-grandson; brothers, Donald Jenkins,
Willard Jenkins; sister, Doris Jenkins. Preceded in death by
daughter, Margaret Jenkins Kastanis; grandchildren, Melissa,
Clint, Chrissy Kastanis;
Patrick Meehan.
Funeral services Tuesday, September 28, 1993, at 11 a.m. in the
Crescent 30th LDS Ward Chapel, 89 East 11000 South, Crescent,
Utah. Friends may call at Goff Mortuary 8090 South State Street,
Midvale, Monday, 6-8 p.m. and Tuesday at the church from
9:45-10:45 a.m.
------------------------
Deseret News, Copyright (c) 1997 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Sunday, June 22, 1997, Under the magnifying glass
By Amy Donaldson, Deseret News staff writer
Krista Pickens' job as a private investigator doesn't much
resemble the practice of television character Magnum P.I....
Pickens was the investigator who worked with attorney Ron
Yengich on the Sam Kastanis case. The West Jordan man was charged
with four counts of capital murder in the deaths of his wife and
three children.
Pickens said she started work on that case believing there must
be some basis for the charges.
"By the time we went to trial, I was convinced he was
innocent," she said. "It's very difficult when you're going up
against all the money and power involved in the government...I
cried a lot in trial. I was working 22 -hour days. It was beyond
anything I'd ever seen."
Pickens said the defense team quickly realized that if Kastanis
was ever going to have a chance at assimilating back into his
community, simply getting a not-guilty verdict wouldn't be
enough.
"We had to prove him innocent," she said.
Pickens turned information she gathered into charts for
Yengich, and said she even caught the medical examiner in a
critical mathematical error that changed the times of the deaths
in favor of the defense theory.
Kastanis eventually was acquitted by a jury.