Post by Anja on Jun 15, 2006 16:12:45 GMT -5
Trucker on Trial in Deaths of Four Called 'Monster' ---- Wayne Adam Ford
killed prostitutes to fulfill his sexually sadistic needs, San Bernardino
County prosecutor says. Defense asks jurors to consider the man's mental
state.
As he traveled across the state, long-haul trucker Wayne Adam Ford combed
dark roadways for vulnerable young women - women desperate enough to climb
into the cab of his truck and trade sex for cash. Women, a prosecutor told
jurors Wednesday, who might not be missed.
4 women did vanish in 1997 and 1998 after being picked up by Ford, and
their naked bodies - some of them dismembered - washed up in aqueducts and
other waterways.
The killings stopped when Ford walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff's
Department one evening in late 1998 with the severed breast of one victim
in his pocket and confessed to the slayings, which he said were
accidental.
In his closing argument in San Bernardino County Superior Court, Deputy
Dist. Atty. J. David Mazurek told jurors not to be swayed by Ford's
confession. Ford is a "monster," he said, and guilty of 4 counts of
1st-degree murder.
"The defendant devoured these vulnerable young women to satisfy his
sexually sadistic appetite," he said, and left their bodies "scattered
like trash throughout the state."
The attacks, Mazurek argued, were carefully planned, as was revealed by a
woman who survived.
The prosecutor reminded the jury of "Sonoma County Jane Doe's" testimony
during the 3-month trial that Ford picked her up off a street corner and
told her he chose her because she was small and more easily controlled.
She said he bound, raped and strangled her, before reviving her and
dumping her on the side of the road, tied up with nylon rope and a striped
brown necktie.
"The defendant is a sexual sadist.. It is the infliction of pain and
suffering that arouses him," Mazurek told the jury.
"You might give him the first one," he said, scoffing at Ford's claim of
the deaths being accidental, "but if you repeatedly do an act over and
over again - is that an accident?"
Ford, 44, scribbled notes on loose-leaf paper throughout the trial and
vigorously shook his head when Mazurek argued that Ford killed the women
through torture and "got off" on their suffering.
For Ford to be eligible for the death penalty, the jury would have to find
him guilty of two counts of murder, including 1 count of 1st-degree
murder.
Deputy Public Defender Steve Mapes told jurors the prosecution failed to
show "evidence of careful deliberation" and that they must weigh the
possibility that his client took rough sexual acts too far, but did not
intend to kill the women.
In the defense's closing argument, which will continue this morning, Mapes
told jurors that they had to consider Ford's borderline personality
disorder, alcoholism, depression, as well as his anger about his 2nd
divorce and his estrangement from his young son.
"There's no way you can decide this case without going into Mr. Ford's
mind, without going into the things in his life that made him snap," Mapes
said.
"People with mental impairments do handle life's stresses differently."
When he turned himself in, Ford told authorities he did not know how the 4
women died. But he told authorities that he frequently engaged in "erotic
asphyxiation," which entails constricting the flow of oxygen to the brain
by strangling one's partners to enhance their sexual pleasure, sometimes
reviving them with CPR.
Autopsies determined that Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, a Las Vegas prostitute,
and Patricia Ann Tamez, 29, a prostitute from Hesperia, died of
strangulation.
Detectives could not determine the cause of death of Lanett Deyon White,
25, a Fontana prostitute, because her body was too decomposed when
authorities found it in a San Joaquin County irrigation canal.
The body of the 1st victim, Humboldt County Jane Doe, was so severely
dismembered that she has never been identified. A kayaker found the torso
of the woman, who Ford said was a hitchhiker, in a slough in Eureka.
After being persuaded by his brother to confess to the killings, Ford led
investigators to his trailer where parts of Humboldt County Jane Doe's
body were found in his freezer.
DNA evidence also linked Ford to some of the killings, the prosecutor
said.
(source: Los Angeles Times)
killed prostitutes to fulfill his sexually sadistic needs, San Bernardino
County prosecutor says. Defense asks jurors to consider the man's mental
state.
As he traveled across the state, long-haul trucker Wayne Adam Ford combed
dark roadways for vulnerable young women - women desperate enough to climb
into the cab of his truck and trade sex for cash. Women, a prosecutor told
jurors Wednesday, who might not be missed.
4 women did vanish in 1997 and 1998 after being picked up by Ford, and
their naked bodies - some of them dismembered - washed up in aqueducts and
other waterways.
The killings stopped when Ford walked into the Humboldt County Sheriff's
Department one evening in late 1998 with the severed breast of one victim
in his pocket and confessed to the slayings, which he said were
accidental.
In his closing argument in San Bernardino County Superior Court, Deputy
Dist. Atty. J. David Mazurek told jurors not to be swayed by Ford's
confession. Ford is a "monster," he said, and guilty of 4 counts of
1st-degree murder.
"The defendant devoured these vulnerable young women to satisfy his
sexually sadistic appetite," he said, and left their bodies "scattered
like trash throughout the state."
The attacks, Mazurek argued, were carefully planned, as was revealed by a
woman who survived.
The prosecutor reminded the jury of "Sonoma County Jane Doe's" testimony
during the 3-month trial that Ford picked her up off a street corner and
told her he chose her because she was small and more easily controlled.
She said he bound, raped and strangled her, before reviving her and
dumping her on the side of the road, tied up with nylon rope and a striped
brown necktie.
"The defendant is a sexual sadist.. It is the infliction of pain and
suffering that arouses him," Mazurek told the jury.
"You might give him the first one," he said, scoffing at Ford's claim of
the deaths being accidental, "but if you repeatedly do an act over and
over again - is that an accident?"
Ford, 44, scribbled notes on loose-leaf paper throughout the trial and
vigorously shook his head when Mazurek argued that Ford killed the women
through torture and "got off" on their suffering.
For Ford to be eligible for the death penalty, the jury would have to find
him guilty of two counts of murder, including 1 count of 1st-degree
murder.
Deputy Public Defender Steve Mapes told jurors the prosecution failed to
show "evidence of careful deliberation" and that they must weigh the
possibility that his client took rough sexual acts too far, but did not
intend to kill the women.
In the defense's closing argument, which will continue this morning, Mapes
told jurors that they had to consider Ford's borderline personality
disorder, alcoholism, depression, as well as his anger about his 2nd
divorce and his estrangement from his young son.
"There's no way you can decide this case without going into Mr. Ford's
mind, without going into the things in his life that made him snap," Mapes
said.
"People with mental impairments do handle life's stresses differently."
When he turned himself in, Ford told authorities he did not know how the 4
women died. But he told authorities that he frequently engaged in "erotic
asphyxiation," which entails constricting the flow of oxygen to the brain
by strangling one's partners to enhance their sexual pleasure, sometimes
reviving them with CPR.
Autopsies determined that Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, a Las Vegas prostitute,
and Patricia Ann Tamez, 29, a prostitute from Hesperia, died of
strangulation.
Detectives could not determine the cause of death of Lanett Deyon White,
25, a Fontana prostitute, because her body was too decomposed when
authorities found it in a San Joaquin County irrigation canal.
The body of the 1st victim, Humboldt County Jane Doe, was so severely
dismembered that she has never been identified. A kayaker found the torso
of the woman, who Ford said was a hitchhiker, in a slough in Eureka.
After being persuaded by his brother to confess to the killings, Ford led
investigators to his trailer where parts of Humboldt County Jane Doe's
body were found in his freezer.
DNA evidence also linked Ford to some of the killings, the prosecutor
said.
(source: Los Angeles Times)