Defense to present psychological testimony in Battaglia trial

DALLAS (AP) — The night she heard her ex-husband had killed his young daughters from another marriage, Michelle Ghetti said she realized it could have been her own daughter.

"I just completely fell apart because I was so afraid he would do that to Christie. It had been my nightmare," Ghetti said. "I knew he could do that."

Ghetti testified for nearly three hours Wednesday in the punishment phase of John Battaglia's capital murder trial. A jury took 19 minutes earlier in the day to convict the 46-year-old accountant in the May shooting deaths of 9-year-old Faith Battaglia and 6-year-old Liberty Battaglia.

Prosecutors have said that Battaglia gunned down the girls in his apartment in an act of "ultimate revenge" against ex-wife Mary Jean Pearle, who was prosecuting him for violating a protective order stemming from an assault conviction.

Ghetti, who was married to Battaglia before Pearle, gave chilling testimony about being stalked, threatened and brutally beaten by Battaglia.

"You're just a nervous wreck, scared," said Ghetti, who was married to Battaglia from 1985 to 1987. "You didn't know what to expect."

The abusive behavior started when Ghetti was pregnant with their daughter, Christie, Ghetti testified, and escalated after they separated in September 1986.

Once barred from the house, Battaglia would tape her phone conversations and hide in bushes outside and jump in the garage when Ghetti came home, she said.

He would appear at night, banging on windows in her home, Ghetti said. She told of one night when she woke up to see Battaglia standing over her, wanting sex. When she didn't take him back after he threatened suicide, Ghetti said he told her, 'I'll cut you up and I'll scar that face."

When Ghetti wouldn't drop charges she filed in a 1987 incident, she said Battaglia beat her in front of her daughter's school.

"I'll never forget, just a huge smile on his face," Ghetti testified. She said she remembers him saying, "If I'm going back to jail, I'm going to make it well worth my while," then he punched her until she was unconscious, dislocating her jaw and breaking her nose.

The day the Battaglia children were killed, he left a message on Ghetti's answering machine accusing her and Pearle of conspiring to put him back in jail and mentioning an acquaintance who recently lost custody of her children, according to Ghetti's testimony.

"You know, maybe that's what needs to happen to Mary Jean. Maybe she needs to lose her kids," Ghetti said Battaglia told her.

Defense attorney Paul Johnson said he plans to call several witnesses Thursday, including Pearle, and psychiatric experts as he tries to save his client from the death penalty. The jury could also sentence Battaglia to life in prison.

Throughout the three-day trial, Johnson alluded to Battaglia's rapid mood swings and asked witnesses if they knew Battaglia suffered from a bipolar disorder.

Johnson pressed Ghetti about whether she ever knew Battaglia to be mentally ill or depressed.

"Never saw him depressed in the whole time I've known him," Ghetti said. But Johnson accused her of being biased, and trying to hurt the defense's case by downplaying statements she made years ago that Battaglia was paranoid, lost control, and seemed to panic under pressure.

Earlier in the day, Battaglia wiped his eyes and wept as prosecutors recounted the shootings in closing statements.

"This man, who those little girls looked to for love and protection and trust, took those weapons, put them to the back of each one of their heads as they are lying there crippled from those gunshot wounds to the spine, and he pulled the trigger," said prosecutor Keith Robinson. "The two girls he supposedly loved."

Battaglia interrupted at that point, saying, "I did love them."

Defense Paul Brauchle did not try to convince the jury of Battaglia's innocence, but asked members to focus on the credibility of evidence.