Appeal Court Upholds Sentence in Murder of Marine

Laura Ann Troiani, the first woman in San Diego County convicted of first-degree murder, received a fair trial in the 1984 ambush slaying of her Marine husband and was properly sentenced to life in prison without parole, a state appellate court ruled Tuesday.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego said in a complex and technical 110-page opinion that there was no legal merit to any of 25 separate issues raised in Troiani’s bid for a new trial.

Extensive publicity did not deprive Troiani of a fair trial, jury selection was by the rules, the judge admitted evidence without bias, the jury instructions were not flawed and the sentence did not reflect cruel and unusual punishment, a three-judge panel of the court ruled unanimously.

Troiani, 24 at the time, who had made no attempt to hide her marital difficulties, was accused of taking part in a plot with five young Marines to kill her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Carlo Troiani, 37, for a $95,000 life insurance policy.

Laura Troiani’s lawyer, San Diego attorney Geraldine Russell, said Tuesday that she was “clearly disappointed” with the appellate ruling. She said an appeal to the California Supreme Court was likely.

According to trial testimony, Laura Troiani was to have paid the five Marines $500 each for aiding her in killing her husband. Russell contended at the trial that Laura Troiani was so medically depressed that she was helplessly caught up in the Marines’ lethal thrill-seeking.

Four of the Marines--gunman Mark Schulz, who was 20 in 1984; Russell Harrison, 20; Russell E. Sanders, 19; and Jeff Mizner, 21--pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges and are serving prison sentences.

The fifth, Kevin Watkins, then 18, was acquitted by a jury of all charges after a second trial--and after spending four years in jail awaiting a trial. His first trial ended in a hung jury.

Prosecutors claimed that the six discussed the killings several times and tried to kill Carlo Troiani several times before they succeeded.

Early on the morning of Aug. 10, 1984, Carlo Troiani was lured to an isolated spot near the Camp Pendleton’s back gate on the pretext that his wife’s car had broken down. He was then shot to death.

The case generated enormous publicity, so much that Watkins’ second trial, in 1988, actually was moved to Ventura County. Russell said the issue of pretrial publicity was a “very substantial” one.

But, Judge Charles W. Froehlich Jr. said in the 4th District Court’s opinion, that press attention had not colored the ability of potential jurors to be fair to Laura Troiani, who went to trial in Vista the year before Watkins did in Ventura County.

There admittedly were a lot of press reports about the case, Froehlich said, about 385 over 2 1/2 years, from the date of the killing to the opening of Laura Troiani’s trial. Only one juror knew nothing about the case, Froehlich said.

But the others who were picked for the panel said they could ignore their vague recollections of the case, Froehlich said. Besides, several jurors “expressed skepticism about the reliability of media reports,” he said.

Froehlich did order one technical reversal.

Convicted of both murder and conspiracy to murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for both, state law did not allow Troiani to be sentenced to a life term for the conspiracy count, Froehlich said.

That’s because, in deciding the conspiracy count, the jury was not asked to rule on whether there were the “special circumstances” the law requires for a life without parole term, he said.

He ordered her sentence on the conspiracy count reduced to 25 years to life. Her sentence on the murder conviction, however, was properly set at life without parole, and that sentence controlled her term, he said.

Judges Don R. Work and William L. Todd Jr. concurred in the opinion.

Judge Gilbert Nares, who is now on the 4th District bench, was the trial judge in Laura Troiani’s case. He was not involved in the decision.