Jury Must Weigh Death Sentence : Troiani Was a Neglected Child, Witness Says

The courtroom battle to save Laura Troiani from the gas chamber began Monday with the first witness on her behalf testifying that Troiani’s mother and father were social and parental misfits who emotionally scarred their daughter.

“This is by far the most bizarre family unit I have ever met,” said Cheryl Schwarz, the wife of a Tacoma, Wash., Baptist minister.

Schwarz said that, because Troiani’s father abandoned the family and her mother ignored her maternal duties in favor of watching television soap operas and reading romance novels, Laura Troiani’s upbringing was skewed at best.

“There was no way a person could grow up in that situation and be halfway normal,” Schwarz, 32, told the jury, which will decide whether Troiani should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Little Affection Seen

“If you love someone, you hug them, you kiss them,” Schwarz said. “But in 10 years (of knowing the family), I never saw a hug or heard an ‘I love you.’ ”

Schwarz said she remarked once that “if something doesn’t change in that family, they’re either going to end up dead or in prison.” Today, she noted, Troiani’s younger brother, Larry Cox, is in a Washington state prison, convicted of sexually molesting young boys, and Troiani’s younger sister has had two children by different men and is unmarried, living at home.

The jury last Wednesday found Troiani, 26, guilty of the first-degree murder of her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Carlo Troiani, three years ago. She faces the death penalty because the jury found two special circumstances in the killing: that it was done by lying in wait and for financial gain.

In the penalty phase of the trial, being conducted before the same jury, different rules of evidence apply, allowing Troiani’s attorneys to present character testimonials and testimony by behavior experts that was inadmissible during the trial.

Instructing the jury Monday in the new ground rules, Vista Superior Court Judge Gilbert Nares said, “If mitigating circumstances or aspects of her background or character arouse sympathy or compassion . . . you may opt for life without the possibility of parole” instead of the death penalty.

“Mercy, pity and sympathy for the defendant are proper considerations,” he said.

Defense attorney Geraldine Russell, in a brief opening statement, said she would present witnesses who would show that her client, a mother of two who had never before run into the law, was emotionally deprived and impaired, and should not be a candidate for the gas chamber.

“Laura Troiani has adjusted to being in custody and has expressed remorse for her husband’s death,” Russell told the jury. “I ask you not to extinguish her life but to spare her life.”

Church Activities Cited

Russell said she would present more than 20 witnesses over the next two to three weeks. She led off Monday with Schwarz, who said Laura Troiani was active in the church’s youth group, summer camp and other activities as “one of our most faithful attendees.”

Her natural father, who abandoned the family when Troiani was a preschooler, was “one of the most obnoxious individuals I ever met,” Schwarz said. “He was abrasive, rude, arrogant, just plain cruel.”

Breaking down in tears, Schwarz related how Troiani had told her of the family being abandoned by their father, who she said kicked at his three children “and said, ‘Get out of here. I don’t want to see you again.’ ”

The father returned years later and attended a Sunday school session, only to belittle his three children in the classroom, Schwarz said.

Troiani, on the other hand, loved children and volunteered to work in the church’s nursery, where “the kids loved her,” Schwarz said.

Troiani’s mother, Kathy Lewtas, “lived in a fantasy world all of her life,” Schwarz said. “She would spend her whole day on the couch, watching soap operas from the moment they began until the moment they were over.”

She said more than 100 Harlequin romance novels filled living room bookshelves, while the routine of housework--cooking, shopping, washing clothes and dishes--and caring directly for the children’s personal needs went neglected.

Those household duties fell on Troiani’s shoulders, as the oldest of the three children, Schwartz said. “She was the chief cook and bottle washer,” she said.

Because Lewtas neglected the children, who were left to care for themselves, the three siblings dressed poorly, were unkempt, lacked in personal hygiene and were outcasts at school and at church, Schwartz said.

Schwarz noted that, unlike other mothers of teen-age girls, Lewtas never helped her daughter with her hair or makeup, further exposing Troiani to mockery from her peers because of her unstylish appearance.

Lewtas testified briefly during the trial, looking to the jury on two separate occasions and saying, “That’s my daughter, you know,” and smiling.

Schwartz said of Troiani’s upbringing: “She was in an ungodly, no-win situation. She never had a chance.” Asked whether she believed Troiani should be executed, Schwarz said, “Underneath all that hurt that’s been shoveled on her, there is marvelous potential, as a very loving, caring, compassionate, helpful person. I know she would be a help to other hurting people.”

Under cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Walden, Schwarz said Troiani became pregnant in her sophomore or junior year of high school by a teen-ager who had had a similarly poor upbringing.

“Here were two people who are miserable and who realized they could give each other some attention and attraction,” Schwarz said. “Laura would love anybody who would love her. I think it was in her mind that she would get pregnant, get married and ride away on a white horse.”

Troiani seldom looked at Schwarz during her testimony, and looked more tired and depressed than she had during the guilt phase of the trial.

The penalty hearing continues this morning. The prosecution said it would call no direct witnesses but would rely on the testimony already presented in the earlier phase. But Walden reserved the right to call rebuttal witnesses.

There are 19 women in California serving terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The last woman to be executed in the state was Elizabeth Ann Duncan, who was executed in 1962 for the murder of her daughter-in-law in Ventura County.