photo by H. Marc. Larsen of GB Press Gazette
Good Morning All;
Here are the continuing articles in my ex-next door neighbor's murder trial.
The jury was picked last Friday. His trial has been ongoing, and should be done with tomorrow.
XOXO
Me
____________________________________________
Yesterday's article, from
here:
OCONTO —
Randall Staeven frequently was violent and abusive toward his family, once setting fire to his children's toys because they had not been cleaned up, according to testimony Tuesday from his teenage daughter and stepson. Staeven — on trial this week in Oconto County Circuit Court for first-degree homicide, arson, mutilating a corpse and reckless endangerment of children — called his 13-year-old daughter "a pig" when she had bathroom accidents as a young girl, according to her testimony.
His 16-year-old stepson said he and his mother, Christine Staeven, fled many times to escape the defendant's violent outbursts, only to return home later.
"I honestly don't know why we kept going back," the stepson testified, "but we did."
Staeven, 51, faces life in prison on charges he killed Christine Staeven, 40, in May 2009 and set the family's town of Chase home on fire to conceal the crime.
Prosecutors are scheduled to continue presenting their case today in a trial that is expected to continue all week at the Oconto County Courthouse.
About a dozen witnesses provided more than seven hours of testimony Tuesday, including neighbors who reported seeing or hearing strange things around the Staeven house on the day of Christine Staeven's death.
Neighbor Tim Saindon told jurors he saw Randall Staeven driving from the scene at about 4 a.m., down a road that is seldom traveled.
"I knew who it was right away," Saindon said. "There's no doubt in my mind who I saw."
A forensic pathologist, Mark Witeck, testified that Christine Staeven's body was too badly damaged by the fire to pinpoint a cause of death.
Witeck, however, said he was certain that her death was a homicide.
Defense attorney Jeff Jazgar questioned the pathologist about an anti-depressant found in Christine Staeven's body in what the attorney called "awfully high" amounts.
Other family members and acquaintances described a rocky marriage between the Staevens, who were in the midst of a divorce when Christine died. Some said they had heard the defendant say he wished his estranged wife were dead.
However, one witness for the prosecution turned hostile.
Scott Heitzke, a nephew of Randall Staeven's, said his uncle was understandably upset about the impending divorce when he said he wished Christine was dead and that the house was burned down.
Heitzke then questioned the accuracy of some police reports and told jurors he personally had been threatened by police officers to cooperate with the investigation or face reprisals.
The nephew said he agreed to wear a listening device and gather information from Randall Staeven for investigators after the alleged threats.
"They told me I should go along or I could get my Social Security taken away and go to prison," he said. "I felt like I had no choices."
_____ _______________________________________
And Today's article, (which is the top posted
link):
— An Oconto County jury Wednesday heard Randall Staeven's own words about his family's money trouble, his marital counseling sessions and his belief that his wife was having an affair. Staeven, 51, is on trial this week for allegedly killing his estranged wife, Christine Staeven, in May 2009 and for allegedly attempting to cover up the crime by torching their town of Chase home while their three children were inside. The children, now 13, 9 and 5, escaped unharmed.
Randall Staeven didn't testify Wednesday, but large parts of his testimony at a previous hearing were read to the jury.
Staeven had testified in July 2010 at a secret John Doe hearing, a procedure that allows prosecutors to put people under oath as a way to investigate a possible crime.
Special prosecutor Vincent Biskupic posed questions that had been posed to Staeven at that hearing, while special agent Michael Rindt of the state Division of Criminal Investigation read back the answers Staeven had given.
In his testimony, Staeven denied being physically abusive to his wife and children. He said he was angry about the bills the family generated and said he and Christine consolidated their debt and filed bankruptcy in an effort to get out from under it.
He denied being particularly upset when he learned that Christine had become involved in a relationship with another man while the couple were separated a few months before Christine's death.
Asked whether he found it upsetting that Christine had plans to marry someone after the divorce, Randall Staeven answered, "Not much."
He claimed it was just coincidence — not stalking — that he spotted her car at 4:30 a.m. one day during their separation, when he suspected she was visiting a boyfriend instead of watching their children.
"Are you typically up at 4 a.m. and on the road?" was the question Biskupic put to him at the hearing.
"No, not typically, no," Staeven answered.
Staeven characterized their relationship as being pretty good in January 2009 when Christine suddenly announced she wanted him out of the house.
Previous testimony in the trial indicated a pattern of verbal and physical abuse during the couple's 10-year marriage and even before.
"He needed to know every place I went, always wanted to be in control of me," said Sue Paulick, 49, who dated Staeven in the 1980s, lived with him in De Pere and had a child with him.
Paulick said she ended their relationship 10 or 15 times because of his abusiveness.
Diane Stachura* of Abrams testified she lived with Staeven in the home he bought at 740 Jaworski Road in the town of Chase in the early 1990s.
She said their relationship went well for the first few years but then Staeven started getting abusive. He threw things at her, gave her a black eye and pulled phones out of the wall to prevent her from calling police, she said.
Christine Staeven's mother, Connie Heling, testified earlier this week that her daughter obtained a restraining order and later divorce papers because she "couldn't handle the anger and the violence."
Jurors Wednesday also heard from Kathleen McWilliams, who ran a day-care business out of her home and baby-sat the Staevens' children in the years preceding Christine Staeven's death. McWilliams also helped the couple balance their checkbook.
McWilliams said Staeven frequently became enraged over money matters, such as when his child support increased. Christine Staeven had a china doll collection and occasionally overdrew on the family checkbook when buying clothes for the dolls, and that sent Staeven into a rage, McWilliams said.
One time, he became so angry, he flipped a table over and called her names, McWilliams said.
Christine Staeven twice told her that Staeven forced himself on her sexually, including one time when he wrapped a T-shirt around her neck and twisted it to cut off her air flow, McWilliams said.
Christine Staeven made several attempts to leave Staeven but returned to him several times, McWilliams said.
Michael Stier, associate professor of forensic pathology at the University of Wisconsin, testified that Christine Staeven died of homicide by undetermined means.
He said it was a fairly new classification of death but one that was accepted by experts in the field of forensic pathology. He said Christine Staeven's body showed no sign of carbon monoxide or soot, which indicated she was not breathing at the time the fire started.
Stier indicated there was a presence of an anti-depressant drug in her blood but not of a dosage significantly high enough to have been a contributing factor in her death.
The trial is expected to run through Friday.
Randall Staeven is charged with first-degree homicide, arson, mutilating a corpse and reckless endangerment of children.
____________________________________________
Dianne Stachura, (Buffington), is the mean woman that lived there for most of the time.
He married Christine later, after Chris had moved in with him.
As I had written on my Facebook page:
Oh Boo~Hoo you gross bastard!
(It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out).
I lived, raised my babies, next door to this effing animal!
I hated him then. I hate him now.
Methinks the foul River Styx flows straight to hell... Just for him.
XOXO
Me
