Embroidery Shop Slayer Gets Life Term, No Parole : Courts: Relatives of victims describe anguish over Fountain Valley killings of 2 women. Judge makes sure that Douglas F. Stanley will never go free.

Pamela Harrington wanted to wake up Friday morning and call to wish her mother a happy 54th birthday. Instead, she came to court to watch as the gunman who killed her mother and another woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Harrington’s mother, Joyce Stanley, and Terry Vasquez were shot to death in July, 1993, in part because their killer hated women. But authorities say Douglas F. Stanley, 58, also wanted Joyce Stanley, his sister-in-law, dead because he blamed her for his strained relationship with his own daughter.

On Friday, Harrington brushed away her tears as she recalled her mother as a loving woman who cherished her family. Joyce Stanley even put aside her fear and dislike of her brother-in-law to nurse him back to health after heart surgery and also raised the defendant’s daughter while he embarked on his nomadic lifestyle, moving from odd job to odd job.

“I would be calling her today to wish her a happy birthday. But I won’t be doing that today,” Harrington told the court.

Harrington said she suffers mood swings and nightmares about the last moments of her mother’s life. She also expressed bitterness that her bills for therapy are mounting while Stanley will be fed, housed and clothed for the rest of his life and receive free medical care for his heart condition.

“The emptiness I feel is unbearable,” she said. “Our hearts were broken.”

Harrington’s husband, Robert, also spoke during the sentencing hearing, telling the judge that the murder has taken its toll on their marriage because he cannot help ease his wife’s suffering.

Richard and Nan Adelsperger, the parents of Terry Vasquez, recalled how their daughter touched everyone she knew. There was the time she helped save a neighbor from a fire, the work she did with a local Girl Scout troop and how she pitched in when the family was building a new barn.

“Terry is missed by us each and every day,” her father said. “Our hearts ache to no end.”

The defendant’s daughter, Lisa Gray, did not appear at the sentencing but sent a letter lamenting that the death penalty was not sought in the case. Gray said she is devastated that Joyce Stanley, whom she considered a mother, is not alive to see Gray’s newborn.

“I want him to know he has no family,” she wrote. “No one loves him.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko told Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter that Stanley deserved the harshest sentence. Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg told the judge that Stanley’s greatest punishment was knowing how he devastated his family.

The judge sentenced Stanley to life in prison without parole and added a consecutive 10-year prison term, virtually ensuring Stanley will die in prison.

Joyce Stanley, 52, owned the Fountain Valley embroidery shop where the killings took place. Vasquez, 41, was a senior employee. After his surgery, the defendant worked at the shop doing odd jobs but disliked taking orders from women, officials said.

Douglas Stanley fled after the killings and was captured in Colorado. At trial, he contended that he had amnesia and did not remember the shootings.

Testimony at the trial depicted Stanley as a mean-spirited man with a bad temper who often threatened family, friends and strangers. When angry, he routinely plotted to kill people. During the trial, Gray testified that her father once told her that Joyce Stanley and Vasquez were on his “to kill” list.

According to a sentencing report prepared by the Orange County Probation Department, Douglas Stanley was married several times, physically abused his wives and “enjoyed inflicting pain and fear, especially on women.”

The sentencing ended on an unusual note, with Judge Carter telling the families a tale from his years as a homicide prosecutor. At the close of a particular murder sentencing, the victim’s parents thanked Carter. The father of the victim then went home and killed himself.

Carter said he offered up the story to the victim’s relatives to urge them to go on with their lives. To do anything less makes “winners” out of killers such as Douglas Stanley, Carter said.