Schoolteacher Pleads Guilty to Murdering Family of 3

A Cathedral City schoolteacher pleaded guilty Friday to the stabbing deaths of a family of three--a crime that stunned the community because of the brutality of the act and the close work relationships of the parties involved.

By admitting his guilt, Michael Schecter, 41, avoided a possible death penalty and instead will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, said Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ulrich McNulty.

Killed were Mario Amicarella, 30, who worked as a computer consultant at College of the Desert; his wife, Carrie Everhart, 30, the vice principal of Sunny Sands Elementary School in Cathedral City, and the couple’s 6-year-old son, Jon.

The prosecution alleged that the motive for the murder was an affair that Schecter’s wife, Molly--who at the time was the principal of Sunny Sands Elementary School in Cathedral City--was having with Amicarella, who was the husband of Molly Schecter’s vice principal.

Schecter, himself an eighth-grade teacher at a different school, was arrested June 19, 1993, after the victims were found in their home, collectively stabbed nearly 90 times.

“It was a vicious, brutal killing of three innocent people that had to be a nightmare for the mother and child,” said McNulty. “The evidence indicated the father was bludgeoned on the head with a pipe and then stabbed 16 times, the mother was stabbed more than 60 times and the little boy 11 times. It was the bloodiest crime scene I’ve ever been to.”

Besides DNA and other physical evidence linking Schecter to the killings, Schecter admitted to his jail cellmate that he killed Amicarella--but said he could not remember killing Amicarella’s wife or son, McNulty said.

The decision to avoid a trial--and forfeit a possible death sentence--was “most difficult” because of the brutality of the killings, McNulty said. But the decision “assures society that Schecter will not leave prison,” avoids possible appellate court review and preempts the testimony of five doctors who supported a previous insanity claim by Schecter, McNulty said.

Molly Schecter now teaches troubled teenagers at a nearby school, district officials said.