thedrifter
01-18-09, 07:25 AM
Should Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his slain wife Quiana' killers face death penalty?
BY NANCY DILLON and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, January 18th 2009, 4:00 AM
The Grieving mothers of murdered Brooklyn Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his slain wife, Quiana, face a terrible question this week:
Should the death penalty be considered when the four Marines accused of murdering their children go on trial?
It is a question that weighs heavily on the consciences of Henryka Pietrzak-Varga and Glenda Faye William-Jenkins, because they are God-fearing women.
It is a question neither woman is prepared to answer.
"There are sites on the Internet where they talk about the murders, and everybody wants the death penalty," said Pietrzak-Varga, an observant Catholic from Bensonhurst.
"One day I am so angry I say yes, the next I'm in despair. Who am I to decide who lives and dies?"
Williams-Jenkins, a religious Baptist who lives near where the couple were slain in Southern California, said she will decide after meeting with prosecutors Wednesday.
"Then I'll tell them as a mother where I'm coming from," she said, breaking down in tears. "I think I've made up my mind, but sometimes I go back and forth."
The accused Marines will not be at the private sitdown in Riverside, Calif., but as the brutal details of how the Pietrzaks were murdered will be laid out, prosecutors will weigh whether to ask for the ultimate punishment.
"This is a meeting for the DA to take the victims' families' desires into account," prosecutor Dan DeLimon said.
Mark Johnson, the public defender for alleged triggerman Pvt. Emrys John, said that further down the line - when he gets the chance to present his case - he will argue that his client has never been in trouble before and is only 18.
"I'm going to do my best to convince them this shouldn't be a death penalty case based on the youth" of John and the others, Johnson said.
Both women said the question they really want to ask is what drove the Marines to allegedly kill their children.
Prosecutors say robbery was the motive and that the fact that Pietrzak, 24, was white and his 26-year-old wife was black did not figure in the crime.
Neither mom is convinced this was a simple robbery.
"They molested and tortured my daughter," said Williams-Jenkins. "That's double pain."
The Pietrzaks were murdered Oct. 15 after the gun-toting Marines burst into their Temecula, Calif., home, police said.
The killers tied up and tortured the couple. They violated Quiana repeatedly. Then John ended the agony by shooting them in the head, police said.
John and Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20, worked for Pietrzak, an Iraq war vet who was a helicopter airframe mechanic at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego.
They and the other accused Marines - Pvt. Kesuan (Psycho) Sykes, 21, and Pvt. Kevin Cox, 20 - have all pleaded not guilty.
Since then, the two moms have been waiting - and crying.
"I'm a mother who's lost her only child," said Williams-Jenkins. "I'll never have the opportunity to be a grandmother."
Quiana's mom said she also mourns her son-in-law.
"I finally had a son," she said. "What did my daughter do to deserve this? She had to die because she fell in love?"
In Brooklyn, Pietrzak-Varga said those same questions gnaw at her every day.
"It's how they died," she said. "It just kills me. It just kills me."
Neither mom said she has any qualms about one day facing the accused killer.
"I'll come by foot if I had to," said Pietrzak-Varga. "I owe that to my son and my daughter-in-law."csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
Ellie
BY NANCY DILLON and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, January 18th 2009, 4:00 AM
The Grieving mothers of murdered Brooklyn Marine Sgt. Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his slain wife, Quiana, face a terrible question this week:
Should the death penalty be considered when the four Marines accused of murdering their children go on trial?
It is a question that weighs heavily on the consciences of Henryka Pietrzak-Varga and Glenda Faye William-Jenkins, because they are God-fearing women.
It is a question neither woman is prepared to answer.
"There are sites on the Internet where they talk about the murders, and everybody wants the death penalty," said Pietrzak-Varga, an observant Catholic from Bensonhurst.
"One day I am so angry I say yes, the next I'm in despair. Who am I to decide who lives and dies?"
Williams-Jenkins, a religious Baptist who lives near where the couple were slain in Southern California, said she will decide after meeting with prosecutors Wednesday.
"Then I'll tell them as a mother where I'm coming from," she said, breaking down in tears. "I think I've made up my mind, but sometimes I go back and forth."
The accused Marines will not be at the private sitdown in Riverside, Calif., but as the brutal details of how the Pietrzaks were murdered will be laid out, prosecutors will weigh whether to ask for the ultimate punishment.
"This is a meeting for the DA to take the victims' families' desires into account," prosecutor Dan DeLimon said.
Mark Johnson, the public defender for alleged triggerman Pvt. Emrys John, said that further down the line - when he gets the chance to present his case - he will argue that his client has never been in trouble before and is only 18.
"I'm going to do my best to convince them this shouldn't be a death penalty case based on the youth" of John and the others, Johnson said.
Both women said the question they really want to ask is what drove the Marines to allegedly kill their children.
Prosecutors say robbery was the motive and that the fact that Pietrzak, 24, was white and his 26-year-old wife was black did not figure in the crime.
Neither mom is convinced this was a simple robbery.
"They molested and tortured my daughter," said Williams-Jenkins. "That's double pain."
The Pietrzaks were murdered Oct. 15 after the gun-toting Marines burst into their Temecula, Calif., home, police said.
The killers tied up and tortured the couple. They violated Quiana repeatedly. Then John ended the agony by shooting them in the head, police said.
John and Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20, worked for Pietrzak, an Iraq war vet who was a helicopter airframe mechanic at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego.
They and the other accused Marines - Pvt. Kesuan (Psycho) Sykes, 21, and Pvt. Kevin Cox, 20 - have all pleaded not guilty.
Since then, the two moms have been waiting - and crying.
"I'm a mother who's lost her only child," said Williams-Jenkins. "I'll never have the opportunity to be a grandmother."
Quiana's mom said she also mourns her son-in-law.
"I finally had a son," she said. "What did my daughter do to deserve this? She had to die because she fell in love?"
In Brooklyn, Pietrzak-Varga said those same questions gnaw at her every day.
"It's how they died," she said. "It just kills me. It just kills me."
Neither mom said she has any qualms about one day facing the accused killer.
"I'll come by foot if I had to," said Pietrzak-Varga. "I owe that to my son and my daughter-in-law."csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
Ellie