Courtroom drama: Michael Mele admits killing dancer Laura Garza just as trial opens
Pleads guilty to manslaughter in deal with prosecutors, will serve 23 years
By Henrick Karoliszyn AND Tracy Connor / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, January 23 2012
He lured her from a Manhattan club to his upstate apartment, then refused to drive her home after she realized he had a girlfriend.
To silence her protests, he covered her mouth and nose with his hand until she stopped breathing, heaved her body in a laundry basket, and left it in the woods to rot.
That’s the story serial molester Michael Mele told in court Monday as he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and agreed to a 23-year sentence for killing dancer Laura Garza.
“It happened very quickly,” Mele, 26, said of the 2008 slaying.
“I put my hand over her mouth and partially over her nose, and shortly after that she stopped yelling. She stopped moving. And I realized that something very bad happened.”
The plea-bargain agreement came just before Mele’s murder trial was about to begin. The deal angered Garza’s loved ones, who had hoped he would get more time behind bars.
“For Michael Mele to get 23 years is not right,” said the victim’s brother, Ivan. “For me, there is no justice.”
Elizabeth Esquivel, mother of the pretty Texas transplant, wept as she said Mele got off easy.
“He should be put away for the rest of his life because he took my heart,” she said.
“I hope he melts in jail.”
Mele, who was on probation for a sex crime, picked up Garza, 25, who had just moved to Brooklyn, at Marquee in Chelsea on Dec. 3, 2008.
He drove her to his apartment in Walkill, but when she got there, she must have realized that she would be just a fling.
“She saw a picture of a girl and female-related items that were my girlfriend’s,” Mele said, wearing a dark suit and speaking softly.
“She was upset by being there, knowing that I had a girlfriend.”
He said she demanded he drive her back to the city, about 70 miles away, but he didn’t feel like it.
READ: MICHAEL DESCRIBES KILLING LAURA GARZA, DISPOSING OF BODY..
http://tinyurl.com/7b52k8v
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: SUCKER OR ANGEL, DR. MARY HAMER PAYS BILLS ...AND MORE
'I'm Van der Sloot's guardian angel': Divorced Florida radiologist, 55, pays bills for 24-year-old 'double killer'... and even visits him in Peruvian jail
By Daily Mail Reporter / Daily Mail.co.uk / Last updated at 8:34 PM on 12th December 2011
While authorities in Peru can lock up Joran Van der Sloot, they evidently cannot contain his charm and manipulative ways.
Though he's jailed for the murder of Stephany Flores and considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the 24-year-old Dutchman brags that he still gets a lot of attention from women.
One such woman is Dr Mary Hamer, 55, a radiologist from Florida who has been corresponding with Van der Sloot for more than a year.
Dr Hamer, who is divorced, was struck by Van der Sloot since the moment she heard about the Flores case, and believes he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She also claims that he is the subject of an international conspiracy and has been suffering abuse in prison that has left him visibly shaken.
Dr Hamer told Newsweek: 'I have a very strong feeling about protecting. It’s a very deep natural instinct of mine that is driving me - not driving me, but allowing me the freedom - to help Joran.'
After speaking to his attorney and his mother Anita Van der Sloot, Dr Hamer sent the first of several care packages to him last year.
And she continues to send them today. They contain everything from disinfectant wipes to books on spirituality to clothing he can wear in court.
Later, Dr Hamer was given the first of several opportunities to visit him.
She told Newsweek: 'I come every six months. I will come for the rest of my life. I have even told Joran I will move here.'
READ: WHAT ELSE WILL DR. MARY HAMER DO FOR KILLER JORAN VAN DER SLOOT...
http://tinyurl.com/82zjo85
By Daily Mail Reporter / Daily Mail.co.uk / Last updated at 8:34 PM on 12th December 2011
While authorities in Peru can lock up Joran Van der Sloot, they evidently cannot contain his charm and manipulative ways.
Though he's jailed for the murder of Stephany Flores and considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the 24-year-old Dutchman brags that he still gets a lot of attention from women.
One such woman is Dr Mary Hamer, 55, a radiologist from Florida who has been corresponding with Van der Sloot for more than a year.
Dr Hamer, who is divorced, was struck by Van der Sloot since the moment she heard about the Flores case, and believes he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She also claims that he is the subject of an international conspiracy and has been suffering abuse in prison that has left him visibly shaken.
Dr Hamer told Newsweek: 'I have a very strong feeling about protecting. It’s a very deep natural instinct of mine that is driving me - not driving me, but allowing me the freedom - to help Joran.'
After speaking to his attorney and his mother Anita Van der Sloot, Dr Hamer sent the first of several care packages to him last year.
And she continues to send them today. They contain everything from disinfectant wipes to books on spirituality to clothing he can wear in court.
Later, Dr Hamer was given the first of several opportunities to visit him.
She told Newsweek: 'I come every six months. I will come for the rest of my life. I have even told Joran I will move here.'
READ: WHAT ELSE WILL DR. MARY HAMER DO FOR KILLER JORAN VAN DER SLOOT...
http://tinyurl.com/82zjo85
PERU: JORAN VAN DER SLOOT LOSES "SUGAR MAMA" DR. MARY HAMER
Joran Van Der Sloot Loses Support of ‘Guardian Angel’ Mary Hamer
Jan 21, 2012 4:45 AM EST / THE DAILY BEAST / WORLD NEWS
Sentenced to 28 years in the killing of Peruvian student Stephany Flores, Joran Van der Sloot has been moved to a maximum-security prison—and cut off from Dr. Mary Hamer, who says she wants her money back
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the day Joran Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Peruvian college student Stephany Flores and was sentenced to 28 years in prison, he wrote his benefactor, Dr. Mary Hamer, a series of letters designed to persuade her to continue supporting him. The divorced radiologist, 55, had decided to cut him off after hearing his guilty plea, and she demanded that his attorney give back the $75,000 she had sent him for what she described as bail money.
“You will always be in my heart, but this, what you are doing to me now I do not comprehend. Why do you want to hurt me?” Van der Sloot, 24, writes in the first handwritten letter.
Hamer wants the money returned immediately, she told attorney Jose Jimenez, who received the funds in November and was supposed to hand them over to Van der Sloot. Jimenez said he never used the term “bail” with Hamer, “because it was never an option,” he said. “I said many times that we would file for habeas corpus, being that my client had been imprisoned for over 18 months without a trial. If we would have been successful, he would have had expenses to cover, like an apartment we were setting up for him, just in case.”
Described as Van der Sloot’s “benefactor” in the Peruvian press, Hamer said in an interview with Newsweek in late November that she was drawn to the Dutch national on the day he was arrested in Chile for Flores’s murder in June 2010. She first saw his image on television, handcuffed and being led by police to his extradition back to Peru.
READ: JORAN van der SLOOT LOSES MONEY SUPPORT FROM DR. MARY HAMER...
http://tinyurl.com/6rlmdxr
Jan 21, 2012 4:45 AM EST / THE DAILY BEAST / WORLD NEWS
Sentenced to 28 years in the killing of Peruvian student Stephany Flores, Joran Van der Sloot has been moved to a maximum-security prison—and cut off from Dr. Mary Hamer, who says she wants her money back
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the day Joran Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Peruvian college student Stephany Flores and was sentenced to 28 years in prison, he wrote his benefactor, Dr. Mary Hamer, a series of letters designed to persuade her to continue supporting him. The divorced radiologist, 55, had decided to cut him off after hearing his guilty plea, and she demanded that his attorney give back the $75,000 she had sent him for what she described as bail money.
“You will always be in my heart, but this, what you are doing to me now I do not comprehend. Why do you want to hurt me?” Van der Sloot, 24, writes in the first handwritten letter.
Hamer wants the money returned immediately, she told attorney Jose Jimenez, who received the funds in November and was supposed to hand them over to Van der Sloot. Jimenez said he never used the term “bail” with Hamer, “because it was never an option,” he said. “I said many times that we would file for habeas corpus, being that my client had been imprisoned for over 18 months without a trial. If we would have been successful, he would have had expenses to cover, like an apartment we were setting up for him, just in case.”
Described as Van der Sloot’s “benefactor” in the Peruvian press, Hamer said in an interview with Newsweek in late November that she was drawn to the Dutch national on the day he was arrested in Chile for Flores’s murder in June 2010. She first saw his image on television, handcuffed and being led by police to his extradition back to Peru.
READ: JORAN van der SLOOT LOSES MONEY SUPPORT FROM DR. MARY HAMER...
http://tinyurl.com/6rlmdxr
DREW PETERSON: LOVE LETTERS TURN BIZARRE AND GRAPHIC
Drew Peterson Writing Love Letters to Woman from Jail: Report
Published : Thursday, 07 Apr 2011
By Anita Padilla, FOX Chicago News
Chicago - It would seem Drew Peterson is working on a love connection, even from jail, according to a new report. The accused murderer reportedly has been sending some racy messages to a woman he's known for several years.
Diana Grandel, 40, told the National Enquirer she met Peterson when she was 14 years old, when Peterson was a young cop and he reportedly rescued her and her family from an abusive father.
Grandel said she reached out to Peterson in a letter to show her support following his arrest for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. She said it didn't take long before the friendship turned strange.
She started getting mail, at least a dozen letters from Peterson, that was pretty bizarre, Grandel said. He reportedly wanted photos of her in a bikini, her clothing measurements and was graphic in describing what he wanted to do with her in bed.
"I just think of your smile and holding you in the dark feeling your body against mine...I want to spend a lot of time with my lips on yours," he reportedly wrote in one letter.
"I have a closet full of new or like-new clothes Stacy left behind when she abandoned us, everything from formal dresses to sweats to bikinis," Peterson wrote in another, according to the publication. Of course the Stacy he wrote about is Stacy Peterson, Drew's fourth wife.
Stacy Peterson disappeared nearly two and a half years ago and hasn't been seen since.
READ: DREW PETERSON WRITES LETTERS TO DIANA GRANDEL ...
http://tinyurl.com/88982xh
Published : Thursday, 07 Apr 2011
By Anita Padilla, FOX Chicago News
Chicago - It would seem Drew Peterson is working on a love connection, even from jail, according to a new report. The accused murderer reportedly has been sending some racy messages to a woman he's known for several years.
Diana Grandel, 40, told the National Enquirer she met Peterson when she was 14 years old, when Peterson was a young cop and he reportedly rescued her and her family from an abusive father.
Grandel said she reached out to Peterson in a letter to show her support following his arrest for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. She said it didn't take long before the friendship turned strange.
She started getting mail, at least a dozen letters from Peterson, that was pretty bizarre, Grandel said. He reportedly wanted photos of her in a bikini, her clothing measurements and was graphic in describing what he wanted to do with her in bed.
"I just think of your smile and holding you in the dark feeling your body against mine...I want to spend a lot of time with my lips on yours," he reportedly wrote in one letter.
"I have a closet full of new or like-new clothes Stacy left behind when she abandoned us, everything from formal dresses to sweats to bikinis," Peterson wrote in another, according to the publication. Of course the Stacy he wrote about is Stacy Peterson, Drew's fourth wife.
Stacy Peterson disappeared nearly two and a half years ago and hasn't been seen since.
READ: DREW PETERSON WRITES LETTERS TO DIANA GRANDEL ...
http://tinyurl.com/88982xh
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