A local woman who fatally starved and tortured her daughter lost her own mother to murder at age 5 and grew up with a violent father who also kept food from his hungry children and beat them for “stealing†it, two of her brothers testified Tuesday.
But Michael and George Feusi of California both said they chose to break the cycle and spare their children from abuse — unlike their sister, Angela Feusi Mc*Anulty. She pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to the aggravated murder of her oldest daughter in late 2009. Her brothers testified before a Lane County Circuit Court jury charged with deciding whether she gets the death penalty or life in prison.
In a brief opening statement before presenting defense witnesses, McAnulty’s lead attorney, Ken Hadley, told jurors that her violent childhood didn’t excuse the violence she inflicted on 15-year-old Jeanette Marie Maples.
But “something like this doesn’t happen in a vacuum,†he told the jury, saying testimony they would hear from McAnulty’s relatives and from a psychologist would help them understand the conditions that warped the 42-year-old River Road area resident into someone who could commit acts he called “a horrible tragedy.â€
“There’s only one difference between the state and us: We’re going to ask that you not choose the death penalty,†Hadley said.
McAnulty’s oldest brother, 44-year-old Mike Feusi of Sacramento, told jurors that he was 7 and Angela “about 5†when their mother was murdered. Nancy Feusi, 22, was living with her five children in a hotel room after separating from their father over abuse and unfaithfulness, Hadley had said earlier. She disappeared in 1973 after going out dancing at a Sacramento area club, he said.
“When her body was found, she had been stabbed 29 times,†Hadley said.
Her murder remains unsolved.
More trauma followed, said Mike Feusi, who is now a Sacramento electrician.
“We were placed in foster care,†he said, until their father came and took them to his home.
“That’s when the hell really kind of started,†he said. “He was always angry. … We weren’t allowed to get food out of the kitchen at all. We could get water, but that was it. One night I was hungry, so I grabbed a carrot out of the refrigerator and was eating it in bed.â€
His stepmother caught him and called his father, who pulled him out of bed by his hair and beat him, Feusi said.
His and McAnulty’s younger brother, George, testified that their father beat all of his children with a belt, but was harder on the boys — Mike in particular.
“He was a mechanic, so he always had a tool in his hand,†Mike McAnulty recalled, weeping at the memory. “A lot of times … it was with a screwdriver or a crescent wrench, which was a lot harder than with a hand or a belt.â€
George, an Oak Grove, Calif., car dealer, recalled that the family never ate together. His father and stepmother ate food they enjoyed in the living room while the children ate rationed portions of basic fare. The couple’s combined eight children were expected to eat silently around the kitchen table so their voices didn’t interfere with the television the adults were watching.
“One time my dad was outside so we were joking around at the table,†George told the jury. “He came in and said, ‘What’s going on?’ He had this big screwdriver and he kept hitting the long metal piece in his hand as we walked around the table. When he got behind you, you were so scared. And then he got behind Mike, and he hit him so hard. It looked like he was going to pass out. And we were not allowed to ask if he was OK.â€
Earlier Tuesday, defense attorney Steven Krasik asked Lane County Circuit Judge Kip Leonard to rule that the state’s six-day case failed to prove one of four components necessary for a death sentence under Oregon law.
In a motion when the jury was not present, Krasik said prosecutors failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt that McAnulty posed a continuing threat of violence toward others, given that she pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and will spend at least 30 years in prison.
The state’s final three witnesses Tuesday morning testified about McAnulty’s conduct at the Lane County Jail and the access she would have to other inmates, to prison staff, to civilian volunteers — even to other prisoners’ visiting children — while serving a life sentence at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.
Two Lane County Jail deputies described McAnulty as a manipulative, habitual rule-breaker. Both said she assumed a passive, childlike demeanor, first pouting and then being overly apologetic each time she got caught sliding notes into other inmates’ cells or otherwise flouting jail rules.
Both acknowledged, however, that none of her infractions involved violence or threats of violence. And Krasik told the judge that McAnulty was dangerous only “to a specific victim and a specific relationship.†The state presented “not a shred of evidence that this familial action would transfer to a nonfamilial situation,†he argued.
But the judge denied his motion, leaving the question to the jury. . .
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