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Sept. 11,
2004 |
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ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
By Mervyn Osborne Hagger
Like many other people I have been following the trial of Scott Peterson with interest, because there are several aspects about the death of a pregnant Laci Peterson that seem to echo the death of Kimberly Anne. Not the least of these points of interest is the case against Scott Peterson which seems to lack a motive. There are lots of guesses, but to date no single theory has been advanced that makes sense as to why Scott Peterson would have killed Laci Peterson.
Of course understanding the motive for a crime is not necessary to convicting someone for a crime. But the one thing that motive provides is a logical explanation for the crime itself, even when the criminal act may be illogical. Without a motive, the element of doubt about the actions of the accused raises the possibility that the accused may not have committed the crime.
But what if a jury thinks that the character of the accused lends itself to the idea that the accused could well have committed the crime? Is it necessary to have evidence that proves the case beyond a reasonable doubt, or is some evidence and a flawed character enough to convict the accused? In the case of Scott Peterson a flawed character seems to be the strongest weapon that the prosecution has. In the case of Mark Guglielmo a flawed character and his own silence were enough to convict him of a crime that I am convinced that he did not commit.
KNOWN FACTS
Kimberly Anne was last seen alive shortly before 1 PM on May 10, 1994. But just after 3 PM on that same day her husband Mark with Kimberly Anne, were due sign a contract and pay the deposit on real estate as the site of their future home. On the previous day, Mark’s mother Camilla Guglielmo had made a deposit into the couple’s joint bank account to assist with the down payment on that same land.
However, the prosecution theory is that Mark knew that Kimberly Anne was leaving him. Because he had been told by coworkers that under the laws of the State of Florida, his wife Kimberly Anne would get half of everything that they owned together, he planned to kill her on May 10. The problem with that scenario is that until the couple actually came to own something worth dividing, there really was no wealth to be selfishly protected by Mark.
Unlike the Scott Peterson case, the prosecutor never had to prove a case against Mark Guglielmo because the trial was aborted in favor of a Plea Agreement.
DUMPING A THEORY
But when the prosecution theory is abandoned, a new story emerges that begins with a former co-worker of Kimberly Anne who goes by the name of Kim Adkins. Both Kims came to know each other at a local restaurant in Daytona Beach where they both worked. Originally it had been called Perkins, later it became Friendly’s and then it became Denny’s. It was close to the Speedway and it was also close to the Holiday Inn where Mark worked.
Working with the two Kims was a young man by the name of Todd Degolier who also became friends with them. On at least one occasion, Todd dropped in to the home of Kim Adkins and her husband on a night when both Kimberly Anne and Mark were also visiting. In other words these five people knew each other and it is these same five people who seem to hold the keys to understanding what happened to Kimberly Anne on May 10, 1994.
A NIGHT OUT WITH KIM
To hear Mark Guglielmo and his mother tell the tale, Kimberly Anne and Kim Adkins became very friendly and about a month before the death of Kimberly Anne, the two met by arrangement at a local motel and bar. Kimberly Anne took with her $500 and according to Mark, both Kim Adkins and Kimberly Anne paid for the use of a room at the motel for some sort of extra-marital relationship with one or more other persons in mind. Most of the evening was spent in the bar drinking, but most of the $500 was not spent but returned to the joint accounts of Mark and Kimberly Anne. Mark learned of this exploit after the fact and he was not happy.
When preparations for the trial of Mark Guglielmo were moving forward in 1995, his defense attorney took the deposition of Kim Adkins who admitted knowledge of Todd Degolier, but downplayed her own social relationship with Kimberly Anne. No mention was made of the event at the local motel and bar.
Years later in 2001 when I began to investigate what happened to Kimberly Anne, but before I ever made contact with Mark Guglielmo, I obtained a copy of the deposition of Kim Adkins from the Clerk of the Court in Volusia County. It was from this document that I learned of Todd Degolier. Although I was not successful in locating Kim Adkins, I did locate the sister of Todd Degolier who eventually persuaded Todd to call me.
At the time I was merely seeking a current picture of Kimberly Anne. Todd said that he had one and that he would make a copy of it and that he would send it to me. But Todd would not give me either his own address or phone number. When the picture eventually failed to arrive I attempted to call his sister again, only to discover that she had blocked incoming calls.
After learning of the incident involving Kim Adkins and Kimberly Anne at the motel and bar, I once more became interested in Todd Degolier and his relationship with Kimberly Anne. What exactly was the depth of that relationship?
What I do know is that for Mark Guglielmo the morning of May, 10, 1994 was not unusual, but as usual he left his upstairs apartment and arrived at work at the Holiday Inn and clocked in on time at 7 AM. Then around the Noon lunchtime, just as he was walking into the main lobby area by the front desk, a phone rang and the receptionist answered it. A female voice asked for Mark and so he was directed by his co-worker to a wall phone where he could take the call.
Mark was observed by the coworker as suddenly becoming a little agitated in his bodily movements as a result of what he was hearing on the phone. He was also heard to say words to the effect that he could not leave because he was still at work. Mark eventually put the phone down. The receptionist is on record in deposition as saying that Mark told her that his girlfriend had just become involved in a car accident and that he needed to leave. Mark next approached the young lady who handled the time cards and asked her for permission to leave and according to her deposition he gave her a similar reason.
WHY DID SHE CALL?
Mark eventually did leave work and arrived home shortly after 1 PM. However, had he arrived any earlier he would not have found Kimberly Anne at home but at the bank, where approximately 15 minutes earlier she had withdrawn a substantial amount of money from their joint account. This was the last recorded time that the authorities have noted where anyone saw Kimberly Anne alive.
What Kimberly Anne had been doing that morning is not exactly clear, but she does appear to have sorted items that she wanted to keep which she packed into suitcases, and items that she had no further use for. Some of these items were photographs and documents which she shredded by hand; others were items to be abandoned by her.
Assuming for a moment that Kimberly Anne was leaving Mark, why would she ransack their apartment while Mark was at work, then go to their bank and raid their account, then hurry home to greet Mark? Why did she make that phone call? If her plan had been to leave Mark, then why didn't simply leave the apartment while he was at work and drive off in her own truck, to wherever it was that she was going? Had she done that, then she would not have died on May 10, 1994. The prosecution could not answer that question and it had no reason to do so, because Mark Guglielmo had accepted a Plea Agreement.
Days went by before anyone knew that Kimberly Anne was missing. A week went by before the police entered into the Guglielmo apartment in an attempt to discover where she might be. Triggering the intrusion of the police were two key events.
TWO KEY EVENTS
The first event took place around 3:30 PM in the afternoon of May 10, 1994. That is when an off duty policeman who was the tenant immediately beneath the Guglielmo apartment upstairs, found a reddish liquid dripping from his ceiling on to his bedroom carpet. The City of Daytona Beach policeman, who was residing in an apartment in the adjoining city of South Daytona, did not call either police department. Instead he called the apartment manager to complain. Two maintenance men arrived at Mark Guglielmo’s door and he told them that he had just dropped a large container of red film developing liquid on to his floor. He said that he was sorry and that he would clean it up and pay for any damages.
Days went by before the second event took place. That weekend and following Monday, South Daytona Police received two phone calls and two faxes from Kim Scaramastro, mother of Kimberly Anne. She was asking about the well being of her daughter who she had not heard from since May 10. In the 1995 deposition of Kim Scaramastro there is a tale of how by phone and by fax, she had denounced her daughter as a pathological liar to South Daytona Police. Kim Scaramastro also stated in her fax that Kimberly Anne had withdrawn a large sum of money from the joint bank account of Mark and Kimberly Anne. But that was not all, she also stated that her daughter had disappeared in the company of an unnamed female co-worker and possibly others, and that these people might do harm to Kimberly Anne.
Because there was no trial, all of these issues were left unresolved.
HELL FIRE AND O.J.!
At sentencing the prosecutor read a statement from the mother of Kimberly Anne which ignored her earlier negative statements about her daughter. Instead it presented the picture of a woman belching fire and brimstone rhetoric of fundamentalist religious fury tied in with a reference to the ongoing O.J. Simpson trial. It was aimed at Mark Guglielmo for denying Kim Scaramastro of the chance to become a grandmother.
Yet this is another one of the strange twists in this case, because Mark Guglielmo claimed that Kimberly Anne had been pregnant just before her death. He claimed that she had either induced an abortion or suffered a miscarriage and in any event, she had lost the fetus. Because the prosecutor caused the rushed cremation of the corpse of Kimberly Anne, this matter was unable to be resolved by any independent medical examination.
More than this, Mark Guglielmo has claimed that Kimberly Anne first became pregnant by another man when she lived in Mississippi. I have been able to follow leads given to me by Mark Guglielmo and establish the fact that Kimberly Anne was dating while she was in Mississippi. However, I have not been able to verify this alleged earlier pregnancy.
Mark claims that he first met Kimberly Anne by chance in Mississippi. That is when he was visiting the area with college friends from the University of Dayton, which is where he was studying. Mark also claims that Kimberly Anne told him that upon her return to California where her mother resided, she either had an abortion, a miscarriage, or a drug induced delivery of a live baby which her mother sold on the black market. All of this was prior to her move to New York where she married Mark.
WAS SHE PREGNANT?
Kim Scaramastro denied in her deposition that Kimberly Anne had ever been pregnant. Yet crime scene evidence photographs taken in the apartment of Kimberly Anne and Mark, do show a baby diaper bag, baby bath toys, a pregnancy kit and other items which point to a possible pregnancy. Mark also claims that he removed a high chair and baby crib from the apartment a week before the police first entered. Part of the money that Kimberly Anne was supposed to have taken also came from a “Baby Fund” cash envelope kept in the apartment itself.
However, the prosecution ignored any comments about pregnancy and went with the theory that Mark Guglielmo was a macho Mafia type who claimed that Kimberly Anne was his girlfriend and not his wife, although the prosecution did not claim that Mark Guglielmo was having an affair. Instead the prosecution claimed that Mark Guglielmo was trying to prevent Kimberly Anne from taking half of their joint property as a result of divorce. The trouble with that theory is that until value had been created as a result of the real estate transaction that was to have taken place after 3 PM on May 10, 1994, the couple had no property of value worth dividing.
At the sentencing hearing the prosecutor for the State of Florida also painted Kimberly Anne as a prisoner living in fear of Mark. Yet the facts show that while the mother and stepfather of Kimberly Anne had neglected her health and dental hygiene, it was Mark who arranged for her to receive dental care. It was through those same records that her corpse was later identified. Continued at the top of the next column.
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Continuation from
previous column
Disproving the prisoner theory is the fact that Kimberly Anne wanted a vehicle of her own and especially a truck. Following her marriage to Mark she got the keys to her own truck. Her name was on all bank accounts. Nowhere is there any indication that Kimberly Anne was a prisoner or that she was being used and abused by her husband Mark, just the opposite seems to be true. It seems that Mark almost worshipped Kimberly Anne.
So when I read the Scott Peterson case and all of the many theories as to why he had supposedly killed his wife Laci, I could only think of the Mark Guglielmo case and the absurd prosecution theory of why Mark Guglielmo killed Kimberly Anne. The difference between the two cases is that the prosecution has to prove their case against Scott Peterson in a trial of the evidence. For Mark Guglielmo there was no trial, only a Plea Agreement which ended all investigation by the authorities.
Just as the prosecution in the Scott Peterson case has made a lot of noise about the discovery of part of the corpse of Laci and her baby being found in a body of water, so too the prosecution in the Mark Guglielmo case made a lot of noise about the discovery of half the corpse of Kimberly Anne being found in a body of water and the other half being found laying under a tree some 20 miles away.
The identity of the person who put the corpse of Laci Peterson into the water is being argued over in the trial of Scott Peterson. Who chopped the corpse of Kimberly Anne in half and disposed of one part in the Hudson River and the other part in the woods, was never proved. Mark Guglielmo was accused of those acts and because he never spoke in his own defense or told his attorney exactly what happened, this accusation was hung around his neck like a millstone to weigh him down with the upwards departure of a 40 years prison sentence.
THEN I CAME ALONG
I poked at the silly story told by the prosecutors and it was clear that their theory of the case against Mark Guglielmo did not make sense. I contacted the former prosecutor and the police who had been involved, and one by one they clammed up. I found that everyone wants to offer me words of sympathy for “your loss.” But it was not my loss of life - it was Kimberly Anne’s loss of life and Mark Guglielmo’s loss of freedom. I am suffocating on sympathy and like the words of the reggae song: I don’t want peace, I want justice!
I want to know the truth because what I have read as being the truth only a fool would accept. So I turned to Mark Guglielmo for the truth on the understanding that our relationship was to be built on the whole truth and nothing but the truth: Lie to me and I am gone from this saga and all who are involved in its sickness.
On the plus side I believe that Mark Guglielmo has told me the truth. He has no computer, no word processor and no filing cabinet in prison for him to remember what he has written to me, drawn and sketched for me and told me on the phone about the crime. He has been very specific and I believe him. To date I have not as yet reproduced his account anywhere. But I will.
On the down side Mark Guglielmo was leaning towards prejudice before entering prison where he has now become a full-fledged racist. His racism disgusts me. I spent much of my time in the years from 1984 onwards, working on various writing and broadcasting projects in the name of equal rights for all people of all races and cultures.
Just before Mark’s attorneys surrendered him to the police, a well known and respected psychiatrist interviewed Mark and studied his family. His report showed Mark to be on the borderline where fantasy and reality blur into one. As such Mark was in no fit state to assist his attorney in his own defense. Mark kept much of what he knew to himself. When he decided to accept the Plea Agreement he believed that the time would come at sentencing when he could reveal exactly what had happened. That moment never came and for this Mark blames his former attorney, who he says, told him to keep quiet.
Sensing Mark’s instability at sentencing, the prosecutor launched into an attack upon both the psychiatric report in order to destroy its excuse for Mark’s behavior and upon Mark himself. The report stated that Mark was in a suicidal state, to which the prosecutor mockingly remarked in open court at sentencing: “No kidding!”
Contrary to the criminal statute of the State of Florida which specifically turns those who would assist in the suicide of another into the crime of “Assisting Self-Murder”, the prosecutor told Mark in open court and on the record to save the tax payers’ money and to go ahead and kill himself! When he arrived in prison he attempted to carry out the prosecutor’s wishes and he was only saved by the swift action of prison guards.
I no more wanted to learn of the premature death of Kimberly Anne one month before her 21st birthday, than I want to fight for the freedom of a man whose views I abhor, but who I now believe is incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit. Does this mean that I do not believe that Mark Guglielmo killed Kimberly Anne? Not at all, I do believe that he killed Kimberly Anne.
WHERE I PART WAYS
Where I part ways with the State of Florida is simply this: Mark Guglielmo has been imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit and he has never been accused or tried of the crime that he did commit. It will only be by a hearing of the evidence of the crime that he did commit, that the real story of what happened to Kimberly Anne on May 10, 1994 will ever be learned by me or by anyone else.
Just because the State of Florida can throw someone into prison does not mean that they should throw someone into prison. But the State of Florida does not care because they have already thrown Mark Guglielmo into prison for 40 years and as far as the State of Florida is concerned, that is the end of the matter. Well, I just don't see it that way because I do not believe that might makes right, especially when the subject matter is criminal justice.
MOVE ON!
Kimberly Anne is dead and her husband is in prison.
The mother of Kimberly Anne became involved in an offshoot religion. Some of her rather strange beliefs and practices contributed towards a sudden illness that took her life at a relatively early age. Therefore when I complained to an adoption judge for the State of Illinois about the improper adoption of Kimberly Anne: that judge told me that since Kimberly Anne is dead, her mother is dead, her husband is in prison and her stepfather is bordering on insanity and the aftereffects of a devastating stroke, that I should forget the whole thing and move on.
Maybe one day I will move on and plant a tree in the name of Kimberly Anne. But before that day happens I want to publish the true account (as near as possible) of what happened to Kimberly Anne in a book about her life. I love books and this book would become the ultimate memorial to the memory of Kimberly Anne, because it would also serve as both a warning and advice for other young couples who find themselves trapped in what they think are impossible situations. But no situation in life is impossible. Only death is impossible to deal with.
All of which brings me to the end of this summation: Before I can write such a book I have to know the story and so far I only have some of it, but I do believe that there is more, much more to be discovered. Obviously if truth is to be discovered then untruth has to be swept away, with or without the cooperation of those who presently conceal that truth.
WHAT HAVE I LEARNED SO FAR?
1. I believe that a man by the name of Herman Steger was a life long friend of Mark Guglielmo and that it was through his ideas that Mark Guglielmo developed his own perverse attitudes towards the subject of racial identity. I also believe that when Mark Guglielmo arrived in the driveway of Herman Steger near where the State borders of Connecticut and New York meet, the corpse of Kimberly Anne was in the trunk of Mark's Ford Tempo. I believe that it was Herman Steger who removed the corpse and emptied Kimberly Anne’s packed suitcases and stuffed her remains into them. I believe that he later disposed of the corpse in such a manner that it was later found in two halves at two different locations in the State of New York.
2. I do not believe the prosecution theory concerning the instant act that caused the sudden death of Kimberly Anne. I believe that Kimberly Anne had been involved in some scheme with other people who may or may not include Kim Adkins and Todd Degolier.
3. I am inclined to believe that just before Kimberly Anne died on May 10, 1994 that she had been pregnant and that it was the loss of this pregnancy combined with other events not entirely understood or as yet fully uncovered, that led to a sudden confrontation between Kimberly Anne and Mark, which Kimberly Anne herself provoked.
4. I am tilting towards the belief that Kimberly Anne got Mark’s hatchet out of his toolbox which was normally stored in their bedroom closet and that she began smashing a high chair and baby crib while yelling at Mark to “go and clean your son off the bathroom floor!”
5. I also tend to believe that at this juncture and in one move, the hatchet transferred from Kimberly Anne’s hand to the hand of Mark. He then brought it down with one blow, one time, both on to and in to the head of Kimberly Anne and that is how she died. There was no fight, no struggle, just one sudden blow to the head.
6. I also believe that if Mark Guglielmo had at that moment picked up the phone and dialed 911, had he surrendered to South Daytona Police and made a full confession to his own defense attorney, then the chaotic, confused and misleading events which gave way to misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance by the prosecution, police and judge, would never have had a chance to occur.
7. Mark Guglielmo did not pick up the phone and dial 911; instead he slipped into a real life fantasy game show featuring Mark himself on a Viking quest. It began near Valhalla, New York and it ended in Canada. It also featured the corpse of Kimberly Anne as the girl that he had previously drawn in scores of erotic comic book poses. She was a conquering Celtic Princess whose spirit had to be sent on its way to meet the ghost of Leif Eriksson and other Viking visitors to North America who he conjured up as pagan worshippers.
8. To accomplish his fantasy tasks Mark had to bury a mock long sword with the name “Hagger” inscribed upon it, together with a mock helmet, both of which had been made at the Westchester County faire in New York. He took these artifacts in his car on the long drive to Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia.
9. Meanwhile the corpse of Kimberly Anne which had been entrusted to his friend Herman Steger was to undergo a neo-Viking funeral. Mark claims that he left Herman with a choice of either a Viking-type of send off on water, or a burial beneath a tree. According to Mark it seems that the corpse was cut in two and one half was put into the Hudson River and the other half was laid beneath a tree.
10. Mark Guglielmo is now serving a 40 years prison sentence for a crime that he did not commit - in order to cover up a crime that he did commit. Being swept under the rug by the existing prison sentence of Mark Guglielmo is the misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance by the prosecution, police and judge.
WHAT I WANT
I want to see the case against Mark Guglielmo overturned on appeal for a new trial, which could give way to a new Plea Agreement.
I have only one demand, which ironically is the same demand that Mark Guglielmo made at the time of his original Plea Agreement: we both want the truth to come out at sentencing. In the event of a new conviction it would of course result in a new sentencing.
It is only when this truth is finally told that my memory of Kimberly Anne’s spirit which I first witnessed at the moment of her birth, will finally rest in peace. Let me know what you think: You will find both a Guestbook for brief comments and a Discussion Forum for your opinions which can be accessed from the main index. (Use the link button above.)
Mervyn Hagger, birth father of
Kimberly
Anne Hagger Scaramastro Guglielmo
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