Posted on 03/26/2012 11:35:30 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Kim Adams let go a tearful whine at the photo of her slain daughter and grandson, presented to a jury Monday on the first day of the trial of their accused killer, Michael Parrish.
Taken July 6, 2009, in the Effort, Pa., apartment Parrish, 26, had shared with his girlfriend, Victoria Adams, 21, and their 19-month-old son, Sidney, the picture shows Adams on her back with her arms outstretched past her head and her left leg bent at the knee away from her right. Sidney is on his back next to Adams.
Parrish has admitted to using a .357-caliber semiautomatic pistol loaded with hollow-point bullets, designed to expand inside their targets for maximum damage, to shoot Adams as she was holding Sidney.
He fired the first shot into the ceiling, Parrish has told police. He fired the second shot at Adams as she was holding the baby and, after she fell, walked over and repeatedly shot both of them until the gun was empty.
State police said a total of five bullets were taken from Adams' heart, cervical spine, lower left leg, upper right chest and hair, while a total of three bullets were taken from Sidney's brain and left bicep.
Jurors in Monroe County, Pa., Court maintained neutral expressions as they viewed the photos.
Premeditation at issue Sitting between his attorneys, wearing the kufi and long beard customary to the Islamic faith, Parrish stared straight ahead, without expression.
First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso is seeking the death penalty if Parrish is convicted of first-degree (premeditated) murder. If convicted of that level charge, the jury must decide whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
Claiming the shootings were not premeditated, Parrish has previously said he shot Adams and Sidney in the heat of the moment, thinking Adams had been cheating on him.
In his opening statement to jurors, Public Defender Wieslaw Niemoczynski described Parrish as "fundamentally insecure."
Niemoczysnki said Parrish at the time had been dealing with the stress of being in a relationship with Adams, "the light of his life," and having a child with a medical condition that eventually led to a heart transplant.
"Of course this doesn't excuse what he did," Niemoczynski told the jury. "Nothing can ever excuse that. But, you must look at all of the circumstances."
On July 7, 2009, Adams went out with family to celebrate her mother's birthday, enjoying her first time out in months after caring for her son around the clock.
Adams was supposed to be back by 6 p.m. so she could give Sidney his daily 8 p.m. injection, but didn't return until about 11 p.m.
Parrish had started calling her repeatedly after 6 p.m., asking where she was, whom she was with and what she was doing. She stopped answering her phone.
The jury heard three taped 911 calls, one from James Ahern, Adams' cousin who accompanied her brother and a friend when dropping her back at her apartment that night.
Pocono Record staff writer Howard Frank contributed to this report.
The same impromptu action shown the victims should be meted out on the murderer with clarity of heart and spirit.
From 6 pm to 11pm - is when he thought about her cheating - so when she came home - the killing was not in the heat of the moment.
Honor killing. Nothing to see here. Muslims are allowed.
This repulsive nitwit is a member of a murder club and he murders someone. How can there be any doubt that it was premeditated?
Indeed. Why not just give Muslim’s a license to kill.
That’s what they do best.
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