Doctor Says Troiani Showed No Remorse at Slaying of Husband

Contradicting a witness who had said that Laura Troiani was too depressed in August, 1984, to have planned her husband’s murder, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday that Troiani wasn’t depressed and showed no remorse over her husband’s death.

Dr. Melvin G. Goldzband testified in Vista Superior Court that based on two interviews with Troiani and other evidence, it did not appear that she was going through a “major depressive episode” when her husband was killed.

At the heart of Troiani’s defense is that her state of mind precluded her from planning her husband’s murder, even though she may have fantasized about a life without him. Defense attorneys hope to convince the jury that Laura Troiani did not lead five Marines also charged in the shooting of Carlo Troiani, a Marine staff sergeant.

Goldzband said that when he interviewed Troiani--on July 31 and on Aug. 3, for a total of about four hours--she appeared to be revising how she felt in August, 1984, to make herself look as if she had been helpless.

“There is a lot of what she told me that indicates to me that she was not as depressed then as she feels she was from this vantage point,” Goldzband said.

Goldzband said of his interviews with Troiani, “I think she was really trying to do a selling job.”

The prosecution called Goldzband as a witness after a defense psychiatrist testified that when her husband was killed, Troiani was so severely depressed she was virtually incapacitated.

“She was sort of groping for any kind of solace or balm that was out there, and some kind of companionship satisfied that,” said Dr. Mark Mills, a psychiatrist who examined Troiani for the defense.

Mills said Troiani masked her depression from most of her friends.

“Laura told me that in many cases she was trying to look good when she felt bad,” Mills testified Wednesday. “She might have been able to convince others that things were going swimmingly when in fact they were dreadful.”

Goldzband, however, doubted that Troiani could have hidden her depression, saying that in most instances, victims of severe depression have a “hangdog” look and are “energy-less.” “You can see a depressed person feel depressed. It’s almost palpable. There’s an aura.”

When evaluating people for legal purposes, psychiatrists have to be extremely cautious because the person being evaluated wants to be seen in a favorable light, Goldzband said. In Troiani’s case, he said, Laura Troiani had an interest in making it seem that she was severely depressed when her husband was slain.

Troiani indicated that although she didn’t feel depressed in 1984, she realized in retrospect that she must have been depressed, Goldzband said.

“There was not any clinical depression of any significant import,” Goldzband said. During the interviews, “There was this constant tendency to say, ‘I’ve learned now that I felt like that.’ ”

“She (says she) really wasn’t aware of feeling those things then, but now she is aware of feeling those things then, which is kind of a non-sequitur. It doesn’t make sense.”

Goldzband described Troiani’s actions at the time of her husband’s killing as “goal-oriented. Her behavior had a purposeful direction. What she did was done to accomplish a purpose.”

Prosecutors say that Troiani lured her husband to a road near a back entrance to Camp Pendleton and watched as a co-conspirator shot him. They further contend that Troiani did it so she could collect the insurance money on her husband and marry her lover.

Defense attorneys have said that Laura Troiani was abused by her husband and have attempted to call witnesses to testify to his history of abusive behavior, but Superior Court Judge Gilbert Nares has disallowed most of it, saying that the evidence is too old to be relevant.

Troiani’s lawyers also contend that she was remorseful over her husband’s death and that, despite the pain he caused her, she loved him.

Questioned by Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst about whether Troiani expressed any remorse over her husband’s death, Goldzband replied, “I did not pick any up either in the interviews with me or in the tape of the (police) interrogation.”

Oceanside police elicited a confession from Troiani hours after Carlo Troiani was found shot dead on Aug. 10, 1984.

Goldzband also testified that he did not believe that Laura actually loved Carlo Troiani, although he conceded under cross-examination by defense attorney Geraldine Russell that Troiani broke down and cried several times during the interview.

If Troiani is convicted of first-degree murder, a second trial will be held to decide whether she should be sentenced to death.

The five co-defendants in the case will be tried after a verdict is reached in Troiani’s trial.