Death Sentence Asked for Men in Murder : Penalty hearing: Praying Anaheim wife died instantly; shots paralyzed her husband.

Two men convicted of handcuffing an Anaheim couple to their bed and firing shots that killed the wife as she prayed and paralyzed the husband should be sentenced to death, the prosecutor urged a jury Monday.

But the attorney for Robert Taylor, 39, of Sunset Beach and Norman James Dewitt, 36, of Cypress argued for lifetime prison terms, saying Taylor, the leader of the two, was a victim of a violent childhood.

The jury in Orange County Superior Court, hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, must decide between the gas chamber and prison without parole for each man.

Taylor and Dewitt had gone to the home of Kazumi and Ryoko Hanano in 1988 after reading the couple’s advertisement of a $20,000 Corvette for sale. They handcuffed the Hananos together and forced them to kneel by their bed and put their heads between the box spring and the mattress to help muffle the sounds of the four shots.

Ryoko Hanano, 60, became so frightened when the men pulled guns that she chanted a Buddhist prayer aloud until she was shot and instantly killed. Her husband, Kazumi Hanano, then 62, survived two bullet wounds to the head but remains paralyzed below the neck. The couple were found six hours after the shooting by their son Dean, then 22 years old. Their black Corvette had been stolen.

A fingerprint left at the scene, and a call to a local Corvette dealer about a black Corvette that might be for sale, led to Taylor’s arrest at his home. He named Dewitt as his accomplice.

His voice cracking, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown told the jury: “If you have a tear, have a tear for Mrs. Hanano. Have a tear for Mr. Hanano. And have a tear for Dean. That’s where our tears belong.”

Dewitt’s attorney, George A. Peters Jr., argued that Dewitt did not fire the gun and got into the situation because of Taylor, whom he described as a manipulative and cunning son of a psychotic father who stripped him of all self-esteem.

Michael A. Horan of Irvine, Taylor’s attorney, said Taylor is the product of physical abuse as a child.

“I remember asking Robert Taylor on the stand that during his confession he said on at least two occasions that he wanted to hang the Hananos upside down in the closet,” Horan said.

“Were you hung upside down in the closet?” Horan said, remembering what he had asked Taylor.

“Yeah, when I was a little kid. (It) brings back bad memories. I don’t want to talk about it,” Horan said Taylor replied.

“I can picture that little boy--that little boy hanging in the closet,” an emotional Horan said, pointing to Taylor. He asked the jurors if they could imagine how scared and humiliated the boy felt.

Earlier in the day, Brown called Taylor and Dewitt sociopaths, likening them to Iraq president Saddam Hussein.

Since the jury convicted the two of murder last February, the trial has hit several snags. The attorneys representing Taylor declared a conflict and had to leave the case. The penalty phase was scheduled for the summer, but many of the jurors who had thought the trial would be over had planned summer vacations.

Late Monday, the jurors were read their final instructions before beginning deliberation.