Lead Story
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In Seattle in October, Neelesh Phadnis was convicted of murdering his mother and father. The 24-year-old Phadnis had insisted on conducting his own defense, though he’d had no legal training, and the story he told the jury changed repeatedly throughout the trial. Initially he said he and his parents had been kidnapped and tortured by a small gang of 400-pound Samoans and their girlfriends; later the gang’s roster grew to include two whites, two blacks, a Native American, and possibly a transgendered person; on the final day of his testimony, Phadnis said he’d just remembered that there were about 15 more Samoans than he’d previously claimed, or about 30 armed Samoans in all.
Robert Blake, testifying in October in the wrongful-death suit brought against him by the family of his ex-wife Bonnie Lee Bakley, said the reason police found traces of gunshot residue on his hands after Bakley’s murder was because he regularly plays with cap guns, according to a report in the New York Post: “Without sounding like I’m pretty weird, I missed my childhood. . . . For me, cap guns bring it all back. If it makes me nuts, then label me.”
Creme de la Weird
Archie Roth, 68, was indicted for murder in Yorktown, Virginia, in May for allegedly killing his wife with a shovel; according to authorities, Roth said he’d been angry with her because they’d been living in their home for several years but still hadn’t unpacked. In July, 42-year-old Mark Raggiunti of Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in the beating death of his father; he’d told police the attack began after his father, who was blind, yelled at him for leaving a light on. And Christopher Offord, 30, was sentenced to death in August in Panama City, Florida, for killing his wife with a hammer; she was nagging him to cuddle after sex when he wanted to watch sports on TV.
