Biela childhood trauma reviewed today as jury weighs death penalty

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Biela childhood trauma reviewed today as jury weighs death penalty

BY MARTHA BELLISLE mbellisle@...

May 29, 2010 02:14 AM



Friday wrap-up story: Biela's mother, Kathy Lovell, said she had to have

surgery on her wrist because her husband used to tie her to the headboard when

he beat her.

Biela's older brother, Jeff, said he can still hear in his mind the sound

of his father's whip as he pounded his naked mother in their bedroom and forced

her to chant. And Biela's sister, Kim Eastman, said the Biela children listened

to their father beat their mother almost every night. Sometimes the mother tried

to hide from their father in their bedroom, but he would come in and drag her

out by the hair. The second day of testimony in the penalty phase of the Beila

trial focused on the abuse he experienced as a child, and the impact that

violence had on his family. Jurors this week found Bielam guilty in the

rape and murder of na Denison in early 2008 and the sexual assault of two

other women. Now they must decide his punishment. His lawyers are urging them to

send him to prison without parole. Once the defense team has called all of its

witnesses, prosecutors will make their case for sentencing Beila to death. Among

the witnesses expected to testify when court resumes Tuesday is the 19-year-old

victim's mother, Bridgette Denison. Jurors also will hear the words of a song

na's brother wrote after she was killed. The penalty decision could go to

the jury as early as Tuesday afternoon. WALK ON EGGSHELLS Eastman, two years

older than Biela, said their father was a tyrant who controlled the home and

took out his anger on their mother. Eastman said she has suffered from eating

disorders and alcohol and substance abuse problems because of her childhood. " We

had to walk on eggshells. Every little thing we did could piss him off, " she

said of her father, ph Biela. " I remember my dad drinking all the time,

every single night, and beating my mom up pretty much every single night. " As

their mother was beaten, the kids would put their hands over their ears and sing

to block out the noise, she said. Biela sat bent over in his chair during

her testimony, and at one point took a tissue from the defense table and wiped

away tears. The family was poor and often got its food from food banks. They

might get a block of cheese and peanut butter to eat or have soup for a week,

Eastman said. " Dinner was always at 6 p.m., " she said. " If it was 6:01, all hell

broke loose. " Children at school made fun of them, she said, because they were

poor and had bad hygiene and clothes. The children adapted differently, she

said. " Jimmy was always the funny one of the family, " she said. " I was the care

taker. My sister was the quiet one, the invisible one. Jeff was the

over-achiever. He was the one to get into trouble. " USED A WHIP Jeff Biela said

their father bound their mother with handcuffs and beat her with what sounded

like a whip on " pretty much " a nightly basis. " Sometimes it was more tortuous, I

would say, " he said. " He would bind her, hand cuff her, he would make her recite

things. He would fantasize about raping my sister or my aunt. " " During this

whole kind of tortuous beating, you could hear, I can still hear it in my mind,

whipping, " he said. " She would beg him to stop. He was just mercilessly whipping

her pretty much nightly. " She would beg for him to stop, he said. She would tell

him that the children could hear, but he didn't seem to care. The family was

poor, he said, and they were evicted from their apartment in Chicago, so they

moved to Nevada. Once after they moved to Reno, when Jeff Biela was 15, his

mother was being beaten again and he stuck his head into the hall and said:

" This is it. I've had enough. If you don't leave we're leaving. " His mother went

back into the bedroom -- Biela said he could see his father punching her in the

face -- so he grabbed the other children and they ran to their aunt's house.

" Jimmy was petrified, " Jeff Biela said. " He stayed, so my sisters and I went

back and grabbed him. " They lived with their aunt for several months. Jeff Biela

said he learned that his father was diagnosed as being bipolar and

schizophrenic. Jeff Biela said he too was diagnosed as being bipolar when he was

26 and takes medications to control it. " We all have pretty different coping

mechanisms, for sure, " he said. Biela said his brother responded to stress by

cracking jokes. " I love him just as much as I did before he was accused or

convicted, " Jeff said of his brother. BABYSIT FOR BEER Kathy Lovell said

Biela's father, ph, was an unemployed alcoholic who was extremely jealous.

He pulled her hair, knocked out her teeth, " and took his belt to me. " She said

she took babysitting jobs to supplement the food stamps, and pay for his beer

and cigarettes. After they were evicted from their apartment in Chicago, her

parents loaned them money to move to Reno, where her parents lived. The beating

continued, and one night it got worse, she said. " I was doing babysitting, and

the woman's husband came home early and went up to make phone calls, " She said.

Joe called to tell her to pick up beer on the way home, and the man answered the

phone, she said, When she got home, " he went off on me, " she said. " He was

pulling me by the hair, slamming my head on the floor in the bedroom, " she said.

" I thought for sure I was going to die. The floor was concrete. " He finally

passed out and there was a knock on the door, she said. It was the police. He

was arrested, and she and her children moved to live with her sister. She later

divorced him. She took out a restraining order but he would show up at their

house, and the police would just walk him down the street, " and that was it. "

KNIFE THREAT The defense allowed prosecutors to call two witnesses out of turn

and Angi Hamlin Carlomagno took the stand. She said she dated Biela for

several months in 2002. After they split up, Biela showed up at her house about

6 a.m. on July 12, 2002, she said. " had pulled up and got out of his car.

He was holding a beer and he was drunk, " she said. " I took the beer and poured

it out. He was angry and he was yelling. He was upset I was dating somebody

else. " Her dog came over and Biela kicked the dog, she said. " He had a knife. He

swung it at my friend Surge, " she said. They called the police, she said. " He

had been calling me at work, " she said, so she took out a temporary protective

order against him. After 2003, she had no contact with him, she said. Sukhgit

Singh, or Surge, testified that he was at Hamlin's house when Biela arrived. He

could not identify Biela in court. " He follows her and tried to get into the

house and I closed the screen door, " Singh said. " I told him to go home -- the

door was still open -- and he pulled out a knife and he went like this

(gesturing toward his torso) and I closed the door and locked it. " Singh said he

ran to the front door and locked it as Biela approached. " He said it was your

lucky day, " Singh said of Biela. He called 911 and Biela left. Deputy District

Attorney Elliott Sattler said Biela plead guilty to misdemeanor assault. DENIED

THE CHARGES When a psychiatrist hired by Biela's lawyers met with him before the

trial, he denied all of the charges against him, she said. Sattler asked

Piasecki, a psychiatrist hired by the defense to evaluate Biela, whether she

ever talked with him about the crimes. " Every time I spoke with Mr. Biela he

denied any knowledge of those events, " she said. Sattler asked her about the

sexual assault in October 2007 and she said " he denied any role in that. He

denied all of the charges against him. " " He denies everything he was just

convicted of? " Sattler asked. " That's correct, " she said. Sattler asked if she

talked to Biela about " the underwear issues " in the case, and she said yes. " I

asked him about the underwear, " she said. " I asked him about this interest. He

told me about the underwear in his trailer. He told me he met a woman and she

gave him the panties. " " Did he tell you why he got them? " Sattler asked. " As a

reminder, " she said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\

----------------------------------- 5:18 p.m. update: The penalty phase of the

Biela trial has ended for the night. It will resume at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

4:45 p.m. update: Biela's mother, Kathy Lovell, said she had to have

surgery on her wrist because her husband used to tie her up to the headboard of

the bed, and it damaged her bone.

ph Biela, an unemployed alcoholic who was extremely jealous, beat her often,

she said. He pulled her hair, knocked out her teeth, " and took his belt to me. "

" We would walk on egg shells, " she said. " We would not do anything to make him

mad. He would throw things, break things. " She said she took babysitting jobs to

supplement the food stamps, and pay for his beer and cigarettes. After they were

evicted from their apartment in Chicago, her parents loaned them money to move

to Reno, where her parents lived. The beating continued, and one night it got

worse, she said. " I was doing babysitting, and the woman's husband came home

early and went up to make phone calls, " She said. Joe called to tell her to pick

up beer on the way home, and the man answered the phone, she said, When she got

home, " he went off on me, " she said. " He was pulling me by the hair, slamming my

head on the floor in the bedroom, " she said. " I thought for sure I was going to

die. The floor was concrete. He finally passed out and there was a knock on the

door, she said. It was the police. He was arrested, and she and her children

went to live with her sister. She later divorced him.

4:15 p.m. update: Carleen Harmon, Biela's former girlfriend, said she met him in

2003 and was drawn by his humor, she said.

" How would you characterize Jimmy's feelings for his son, " asked Biela's lawyer,

. " He loved him, " she said. asked her if she had any good

memories of her relationship with him that she could share with the jury. " Given

the lack of positive role models in his life, he loved his son and did his best

to try to be a good father to him, " Harmon said. Deputy District Attorney Chris

Hicks asked her about one of the photos, and asked if it was taken around the

time Biela started " going up to the UNR campus and started raping girls. " And

Hicks asked Harmon how her parents treated Biela, and she said they were always

kind. She said her parents attended the court hearing when the video was played

of her meeting with Biela in the police station. As Biela left the courtroom,

Harmon said he " flipped off " her parents.

3:30 p.m. update: Biela's uncle testified that his brother, ph Biela,

suffered a head injury when he fell off a couch when he was 3 years old and

tried to rape their sister when he was 19.

" Joe was maybe three when he fell off a couch, " said Wally Biela, who lives near

Chicago. " He was rushed to a hospital. He wasn't expected to live. Because of

that fall and the injury to his head it basically affected him. " When ph

Biela was 19, " he took his sister into the basement and tried to rape her, "

Wally Biela said. Wally Biela said their father was a strict disciplinarian and

ph Biela often got into trouble, especially when he had bad grades at

school. Biela's lawyer, Maizie Pusich, showed photos of ph Biela, showing

tattoos on his face and neck. The number five on his face was for his five

children, said Wally Biela, who lives near Chicago. Family gatherings on

holidays often did not go well, he said. " Joe had a tendency when things went

wrong he would just grab Kathy and the kids and take off, " Wally Biela said.

Bouch, who worked with Biela as a pipefitter, said he has known

Biela for about seven years. He recently shared a trailer with Biela in Moses

Lake, Washington. The pay scale in Washington was much higher, he said. He said

they worked 10-hour days, and after work, they went to the gym or played

basketball or baseball. The two were together almost all the time, he said.

Bouch said Biela and another man argued one night and Biela punched the man.

Afterward, he said Biela cried, Bouch said, adding he said it reminded him of

his dad. Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler asked Bouch if Biela had a

girlfriend up there, and he said no. Sattler said a psychiatrist testified that

Biela said a woman had given him her underwear, which were found in his trailer.

2:30 p.m. update: Biela's older brother, Jeff, said their father bound

their mother with handcuffs and beat her with what sounded like a whip on

" pretty much " a nightly basis.

" Sometimes it was more tortuous, I would say, " he said. " He would bind her, hand

cuff her, he would make her recite things. He would fanaticize about raping my

sister or my aunt. " " During this whole kind of tortuous beating, you could hear,

I can still hear it in my mind, whipping, " he said. " She would beg him to stop.

He was just mercilessly whipping her pretty much nightly. " She would beg for him

to stop, he said. She would tell him that the children could hear, but he didn't

seem to care. He could see into his parent's bedroom, and they could see her in

there, naked, bound, being beaten, he said. One time his mother ran into their

bedroom naked, and their father came in, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her

out, screaming, he said. Another time he and Biela were together and they

could hear their mother calling " please stop, please stop, " he said. She was

missing her teeth from getting her face smashed, he said. The family was poor,

he said, and they were evicted from their apartment, so they moved to Nevada.

Once after they moved to Reno, when Jeff was 15, his mother was being beaten

again and he stuck his head into the hall and said: " This is it. I've had

enough. If you don't leave we're leaving. " His mother went back into the bedroom

- Jeff said he could see his father punching her in the face - so Jeff grabbed

the other children and they ran to their aunt's house. " Jimmy was petrified, "

Jeff Biela said. " He stayed, so my sisters and I went back and grabbed him. "

They lived with their aunt for several months. Jeff Biela said he learned that

his father was diagnosed as being bipolar and schizophrenic. Jeff Biela said he

was diagnosed as being bipolar when he was 26, and takes medications to control

it. " We all have pretty different coping mechanisms, for sure, " he said. Jeff

said Biela responded to stress by cracking jokes. " I love him just as much

as I did before he was accused or convicted, " Jeff said of his brother.

2 p.m. update: Kim Eastman, one of Biela's two sisters, said he responded

to stressful situations by making jokes.

" We stuff it down inside and we don't tell how we really feel, " she testified in

the penalty phase of his trial. " We don't talk about it even if it's really

serious. " " You know what your brother has been convicted of here, do you still

love him? " Biela's lawyer, Maizie Pusich asked. " I'll always love him no matter

what, " she said, her voice breaking. The defense allowed prosecutors to call two

witnesses out of turn and Angi Hamlin Carlomagno took the stand. She said she

dated Biela for several months in 2002. After they split up, Biela showed

up at her house at about 6 a.m. on July 12, 2002, she said. " had pulled up

and got out of his car. He was holding a beer and he was drunk, " she said. " I

took the beer and poured it out. He was angry and he was yelling. He was upset I

was dating somebody else. " Her dog came over and Biela kicked the dog, she said.

" He had a knife. He swung it at my friend Surge, " she said. They called the

police, she said. " He had been calling me at work, " she said, so she took out a

temporary protective order against him. After 2003, she had no contact with him,

she said. Sukhgit Singh, or Surge, testified that he was at Hamlin's house when

Biela arrived. He could not identify Biela in court. " He follows her and tried

to get into the house and I closed the screen door, " Singh said. " I told him to

go home - the door was still open - and he pulled out a knife and he went like

this (gesturing toward his torso) and I closed the door... " Continued

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