Troiani Given Life Without Parole : Formal Sentencing Ends 3-Year Case in Murder of Spouse

The three-year-long prosecution of 26-year-old Laura Troiani concluded Monday when Vista Superior Court Judge Gilbert Nares formally sentenced her to spend the rest of her life in a Frontera women’s prison for the murder of her husband in August, 1984.

Troiani, appearing emotionless as she has during virtually all of the proceedings, was sentenced by Nares to life in prison without the possibility of parole--and was assessed a statutory $100 fine.

Defense attorneys playfully suggested to the court that the county not spend thousands of dollars trying to collect the fine.

Convicted Last Month

Troiani was convicted by a nine-woman, three-man jury on Oct. 5 of the first-degree murder of Carlo Troiani, 37, who was killed after being lured to a desolate stretch of North River Road in Oceanside and shot from behind as his wife, the bait to attract him to the murder scene, sat behind the wheel of her car.

The alleged triggerman was Mark Schulz, one of the five then-Marine co-defendants, who is scheduled to stand trial next. Pretrial hearings for Schulz are set for Wednesday amid courthouse speculation that he will plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, thereby avoiding the possibility of a death sentence. Schulz, 22, has previously pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.

Because the jury found that Laura Troiani murdered her husband for financial gain--his $95,000 life insurance policy--and because he was shot in an ambush, the jury had only two sentencing options: life in prison without parole or death in the gas chamber.

The jury returned with the lesser sentence, and the jury foreman later said that the jurors believed Troiani might show some redeeming value in prison.

Defense attorney Geraldine Russell again said Monday, as she has throughout the prosecution, that she would appeal the conviction on grounds that evidence that might have benefited her client was ruled inadmissible.

Chief prosecuting attorney Phil Walden said he was confident that the Troiani conviction would withstand appeal because “Judge Nares put together an ironclad record.”

Among several defense witnesses who were barred from testifying was an anthropology professor who argued that Troiani, as a woman, was unable to thwart the murder plans of the five male co-defendants who were too tightly bonded as a group to defer to Laura Troiani when she professed second thoughts about the killing.

In court papers asking that prison authorities enroll Troiani in group therapy, Russell portrayed her client as so depressed as to be helplessly caught up in the lethal thrill-seeking of her co-defendants.

“Enter Mark James Schulz, self-proclaimed Marine ‘hit man’ who fought with Russell Sanders over field mice for the opportunity to bite their heads off. Enter four other tough-talking, hard-drinking young Marines out to save a young damsel in distress from the abusive staff sergeant husband,” Russell wrote in a defense document.

“Each had their own reason for getting involved in this conversation about killing--(Jeffrey) Mizner for love, (Russell) Harrison for power, Sanders as a joke, (Kevin) Watkins just to be with the only guys that would accept him, Schulz to try to overcome his own inferiority complex and to strike back at the Marine officers in general for all the embarrassment he felt at being called down and crying in front of other troops,” Russell wrote.

“From what they heard through Laura and what they saw of Carlo themselves (i.e., ‘Stay away from my wife or I’ll kill you.’), they had no trouble whatsoever making Carlo out to be the villainous enemy who deserved to die,” Russell’s report said.

The defense document concluded, “Laura Troiani will benefit in prison from a program that combines therapy and work. Laura Troiani is a good worker and is motivated to work well with others.

“She also needs to be involved with group therapy so she can learn to combat depression and overcome bad judgment. She will benefit from interaction with other inmates. She does not pose a danger to others.”

Sentence Reduction Rejected

Co-defense counsel Thomas Bowden made a last-ditch effort Monday to have Troiani’s sentence reduced so that she could one day be paroled, but Nares rejected the request out of hand.

“Our position is that she doesn’t need to spend the rest of her life in prison,” Bowden pleaded. “Spousal killing is the kind of case that is not likely to again occur. Generally speaking, they are killings of passion, and those kinds of offenses don’t re-occur. If she were to be released today, for instance, the likelihood of that happening again is extremely minimal.”

Troiani, who declined to be interviewed by the probation officer which prepared its own sentencing recommendation of life in prison without parole, had nothing to say to Nares.

“Miss Troiani, is there anything you want to say at this time?” Nares asked.

“Not at this time,” she answered.

Nares then found “no reason to strike the true finding of the jury” and pronounced the sentence of life in prison without parole--with credit for 1,180 days in jail already served and an additional 590 days of jail time for good behavior.

Asked by Nares if she wanted to return to the Vista courthouse for any further appeal hearings, Troiani answered quietly, “No.”