OC Weekly: The Killer Laughed

[question everything]

The Killer Laughed

Now he's likely to spend the rest of his life in prison for the beating death and robbery of a gay man

by R. SCOTT MOXLEY

You don't know what to expect of an accused killer awaiting his verdict. Fear, maybe. Or anger. But on Nov. 18, when an Orange County jury found Gregory Michael Pisarcik guilty of torturing, killing and mutilating a gay man, the 28-year-old New Jersey native smirked and nodded, and then chuckled at his somber jurors. Outside the Santa Ana courtroom, the jurors, 11 women and a man, wept and consoled each other. A female juror nearly collapsed in the elevator; others openly worried about their safety. One of them described the gruesome case as "emotionally draining -- the worst thing I've ever seen in my life." A juror asked me, "Why was laughing?"

Perhaps because the ruse was over. Pisarcik no longer needed to pose as a part-time lover of sodomy, older men, fashion and his mother's underwear, as a victim of a childhood fall, a brutal father, and an uncaring society. During the three-week trial, senior deputy DA Matt Murphy revealed the real Pisarcik, a penniless drifter, thug and thief with a $120-a-day methamphetamine habit who murdered Narciso P. Leggs Jr. during a June 2002 robbery.

Until recently, killing gay men was easily defensible. In 1995, in my first story for the Weekly, I reported on the case of Scott Stockwell, a man who killed Boyd Finkel, a successful gay Irvine businessman. Stockwell admitted that he killed Finkel with a hammer, stole his property and fled to Wisconsin, but claimed self defense: though he slept with Finkel for three nights before the killing, he told jurors he was violently outraged by gay sex. His jurors sympathized. They found him guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter -- even though blood splatter evidence proved Finkel had been attacked from behind while he read the Sunday comics. Two months after the trial, Stockwell walked out of the Orange County jail a free man.

Stockwell's case harkened back to the archetype, the 1978 trial of Dan White. A former cop and fireman, White, a conservative, resigned his post on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, returned to City Hall with a gun and killed two of the board's most liberal members, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay man. White's defense team admitted he'd killed the men, but blamed it depression triggered by a bad diet. Twinkies plus stress and the presence of an openly gay man were the lethal combination that killed Moscone and Milk, the defense argued. The judge and jury bought it: White was convicted not of first-degree murder but on a lesser charge of manslaughter.

(snip)

[e-mail]

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/06/12/news-moxley.php

[Straight Shooter]

1. Cases like Pisarcik are why I have no qualms about the death penalty.

With the caveat of being used only in cases of incontrovertible evidence, such as this one, and where the defendant shows absolutely no sign whatsoever of remorse for committing such a gruesome and merciless crime.

I wonder what irreparable damage he had done before he ever got to the point of killing Mr. Leggs.

[Meldread]

2. It's because of people like Pisarcik that I support the Death Penalty.

I believe in any Hate Crime - no matter how small - the penalty should be death. ...and not some wimpy easy lethal injection either. It should be put on Public Television for everyone to witness: "THIS IS WHERE HATE LEADS! HATE CRIMES END IN DEATH!"

Incase anyone missed it and didn't read the entire thing this is what happened to the victim:
---
"This was an unpremeditated explosion of rage and an eruption of history that resulted in that ritualistic killing," said Kelley, who represented serial killer Charles Ng in the early 1990s. On the courtroom televisions, he displayed a crime scene photo of Leggs' hog-tied, mutilated corpse. "FAGS DIE" written on his back with a black marker and a large Ray-O-Vac flashlight shoved deep into the man's bloody rectum -- and then blamed Pisarcik's personal issues.

"Come on! We're talking about demons," Kelley told the jury. "Those demons came out that night."
---

Yeah, there was a demon present alright, and you were defending it. It is my hope that in prison he is raped each and every night for the rest of his miserable life, then if there is hell he rots there for all eternity.

[question everything]

3. And this is why he should not be put to death

yes, let him rot in prison for years, being raped and humiliated and attacked and remembering what he did to his victim(s) each and every night.

Even death by hanging or by electric chair will last only several seconds and then it is over.

[TaleWgnDg]

4. Folks illogically assume that there is a psychological closure

.
Folks illogically assume that there is a psychological closure when the death penalty is applied. There isn't. The horror remains. Retribution isn't enough either.

It's truly sad.

After having gone through the heinous death and loss of a loved-one -- the victim of the crime -- then along comes the criminal trial followed by appeals, publicity, prosecutors and other attorneys, investigators, courtrooms, interviews, waiting then waiting some more, all the while getting more frustrated and angry, wouldn't you think that the end is when the switch is pulled? the poison pill injected? the gas tablet dropped?

No.

There is no closure as expected by many. It's a fallacy.

The death penalty causes more pain and suffering to the victim's loved-ones than does life w/o parole! Folks who say otherwise aren't being truthful (to themselves). As an attorney, I've been there, done that many years ago.

.

[question everything]

7. It is even worse

Because it takes years from the conviction to the executions, the families of the victims are consumed with waiting for their revenge and when it is finally over, they are faced with a huge emptiness, wondering what to do with their lives.

Instead of life in prison, which usually concludes quickly, and then they can try to get on with their lives, their wounds remain open with no hope of healing, waiting for the next appeal, stay of execution, etc.

[Meldread]

5. True.

...however it makes me no less sick to know that bastards like him still are allowed to breathe the same air as everyone else. It was a huge mistake for the Shepard's to let the two bastards (whose names I will not even utter) who killed their son to not get the death penalty. After all, back in 2004 who can forget their interview with 20/20? They would have been better off dead than trying to garner sympathy. No sympathy for bigots.

[NMMNG]

6. These sorts of horrific acts are why we *must* have hate crime legislation

in all states that include GLBT individuals. This "gay panic" or "gay outrage" defense also needs to be outlawed. It is utter bullshit. Could a lesbian being accosted by a man claim "hetero panic" if she murdered him? :eyes:

I swear, I read these stories and get so knotted up inside I don't know whether to scream or cry.