Man who shot wife, assisted suicide

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Tuesday, January 07, 2003Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Man who claims he killed wife out of mercy sentenced

By GLENN PUIT REVIEW-JOURNAL

Costanzo is handcuffed Monday after being sentenced to prison for fatally shooting his ill wife last year.Photo by .

Costanzo's wife wanted to die.

Gay Shreves, 50, had told her son, her husband and others that she could no longer stand the pain from multiple sclerosis and complications from silicone breast implants.

"She had reached a point where she could no longer endure," Costanzo said in court Monday of his wife, who was in failing health and had dropped down to 80 pounds.

And so, on March 3, Costanzo granted his wife's wish, shooting her twice in the head.

The crime earned him four to 10 years in prison.

"Because of my love for her, the prospect of allowing her to remain in pain was far worse than whatever would happen to me," Costanzo told District Judge ph Bonaventure at his sentencing hearing Monday.

"I am at peace with myself," he said.

But was the shooting of Shreves at her Las Vegas home a mercy killing, or was it murder?

That, according to court records and officials, is debatable. Authorities originally charged Costanzo with murder, but he was allowed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a plea agreement.

Despite the reduced charge, Bonaventure made clear Monday that Costanzo's decision to kill his wife was an unacceptable one.

"You played God," the judge said to the defendant. "Who are you to play God?"

"It was her decision and I did what she wanted," Costanzo replied.

The case came to light March 2, when Las Vegas police received a call from Mace Yampolsky, Costanzo's attorney at the time.

He told dispatchers that a dead body could be found at Shreves' Las Vegas home, near El Capitan Way and West Cheyenne Avenue.

Police found Shreves dead from gunshot wounds to the head. Two bullets were found underneath her pillow.

Yampolsky arrived at the scene and immediately surrendered Costanzo to authorities.

"Yampolsky told detectives that Shreves was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis," the court documents state, and that she was terminally ill.

Yampolsky also said that Shreves had requested an acquaintance shoot her and that she tried to provide him with a gun, court documents state.

Costanzo was arrested and charged with murder.

During the police investigation, court documents state that Las Vegas police homicide Sgt. Ken Hefner contacted Shreves' son in Iowa, and he stood up for his mother's killer.

"He told Hefner that his mother was in terrible pain," police reports state. "He also said that Costanzo loved Shreves very much, and that if Costanzo shot her, it was because she begged him to do it."

Police reports state that Shreves tried to kill herself eight months earlier by overdosing on pills.

Costanzo's current attorney, Steve Wolfson, said his client acted on his wife's request.

"In the defendant's eyes, she was terminally ill," Wolfson said. "And in the decedent's eyes, she didn't think she was going to get any better."

Wolfson painted a portrait of a family in chaos because of Shreves' illnesses, which consisted of complications from the silicone breast implants and a multiple sclerosis diagnosis within the last two years.

Wolfson said Costanzo and Shreves had lost insurance coverage for medical treatments, and Costanzo moved to San Diego so he could be closer to Mexico where he got cheaper medication for his wife.

Costanzo's sister, Janet McCormack, said she listened to numerous voice mail messages left by Shreves for her brother.

" `Please, please, please don't leave me like this,' " Costanzo's sister said of the contents of Shreves' messages.

"She was wanting to die," McCormack said.

McCormack said Shreves weighed only 80 pounds at the time of her death.

Wolfson said a lack of any assisted suicide law in Nevada played a role in Costanzo's actions.

"He is an educated and caring man who knew he didn't have any legal choices," Wolfson said.

Only one state, Oregon, has legalized assisted suicide. It allows mentally competent residents with a prognosis of less than six months to live to request a life-ending prescription from a physician.

n Rush is director of program services for Hemlock Society USA, a Colorado-based organization that supports legal options for people who wish to take their own life.

But Rush said the agency only supports an individual's right to end his life on his own and in no way advocates the participation of others.

"Anyone else involving themselves is committing a felony," Rush said. "We have to work within the limits of the law."

How long Shreves had to live will never be known, and multiple sclerosis is far from a guaranteed death sentence.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that the disease is not fatal and that sufferers can be expected to have a normal or near-normal life expectancy.

Regarding her other ailment, the Food and Drug Administration placed restrictions on the use of silicone gel-filled breast implants in 1992.

The connection between problems with the breast implants and severe physical ailments has led to countless lawsuits and claims of severe physical disabilities, but the extent of those disabilities has been hotly debated.

When asked how long Shreves had to live at the time of her death, County prosecutor Schwartz said the question was impossible to answer.

"We can't really determine how serious it was," he said.

Of the plea agreement, Schwartz said he was satisfied with the outcome given the contested facts of the case.

"It was an unusual case," he said. "I can't say I feel great about it, but I'm comfortable with it."

In sending Costanzo to prison, Bonaventure told him that society does not approve of his actions.

"You're sending a bad message to the community," Bonaventure said. "I think in your heart you think what you did was right, but I think what you did was wrong."