BSRanch
Death sentence possible for killer
PENALTY PHASE: A truck driver, convicted last month, hears from his victims' families.
10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
SAN BERNARDINO - An entire courtroom seemed to be near tears Wednesday as jurors began to hear the emotional torment that convicted serial murderer Wayne Adam Ford caused the families of his victims, including Tina Gibbs, of Las Vegas. "She was the best kid in the world. The smiles, the laughter, the, 'Mommy, I love you,' -- that I can't hear anymore," her mother, Mary Sharp, told the jury that will help determine whether Ford is executed. "I cannot focus. I can no longer hold a ... job. I see a psychiatrist two or three times a month." Deepening the shock of their daughter's slaying was the way her cremated remains were mailed to the family. "She was sent back to us in a brown, plastic Tupperware box," testified Ron Sharp, the stepfather Tina called Daddy since she was about 7. "I built her an oak urn." Worst of all was telling his wife of their daughter's death. Ron Sharp likened it to "tearing your heart out and stomping it on the ground." Ford, 44, was a long-haul trucker who surrendered in November 1998 by walking into a Humboldt County sheriff's station with a woman's severed breast in his pocket. Within hours, he confessed to killing four women, including two from San Bernardino County. The crimes were committed between October 1997 and October 1998 in counties ranging from San Bernardino northward to Humboldt. During the trial's guilt phase, the prosecutor portrayed Ford as a monster who preyed on small-framed prostitutes whom he easily could overpower. Last month, the jury convicted Ford of four counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple-murder. The finding triggered the trial's second phase, which is expected to end by early August with one of two possible penalties: execution or life imprisonment without parole. On Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney David Mazurek pledged to bring to the witness stand family members who will describe the impact that the murders have had on them. Mazurek introduced testimony from five of Ford's former jailers, who said Ford has stashed weapons in his jail cells and has made multiple threats against officers. "We all know what he ... deserves," Mazurek told the jury, whom he is trying to persuade to vote for death. "That will be justice, finally, in this case." The defense lawyers postponed their opening statement to the jury until after all prosecution witnesses testify. During the coming days, jurors are scheduled to hear from the families of 29-year-old Patricia Anne Tamez, of Hesperia, and 25-year-old Lanett Deyon White, of Fontana, the mother of four children. Authorities have never been able to identify the fourth woman, who is called Jane Doe in court documents. White's father broke down when he learned of his daughter's death, Mazurek said. The incident marked the first time his wife had ever seen him cry, the jury was told. Tamez's father is expected to testify that she got hooked on diet pills and wasn't able to kick the habit. Her dad always hoped that he might be able to get her into counseling that would help rid her of her addiction. "He would have tried everything he could to get his daughter off drugs," Mazurek told the jury. "And the defendant stole his chance."
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