Man Dismembers Grandmother And Girlfriend

[bloodrayne]

Prosecutor To Seek Execution For Man Who Dismembered Grandmother And Girlfriend

Freehold, New Jersey -- Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing and dismembering his 87-year-old grandmother and his longtime girlfriend.

Rosario "Russell" Miraglia, 32, is accused of murder in the June 8 deaths of Julia Miraglia and 31-year-old Leigh Martinez, who were killed in the Ocean Township home they shared. Both were decapitated and their hands and feet cut off with a meat cleaver, according to authorities.

A death penalty review committee in the Monmouth County prosecutor's office that examined the evidence in the killings decided to seek Miraglia's execution based on the brutal nature of the slayings and because Miraglia allegedly killed his grandmother in a bid to escape detection for killing Martinez, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Robert Honecker.

A medical examiner found that Martinez died from stab wounds and was dismembered after death; Miraglia died as the result of decapitation.

Miraglia, whose last known address was a drug rehabilitation center, called police to report the killings after a relative knocked at the door of his grandmother's home and he answered the door covered in blood.

"He was on a mission, directed from God, to commit these homicides. That was the alleged motive," said Honecker, who said he expects an insanity defense if the case goes to trial. No trial date has been set.

Miraglia's attorney, public defender Jeffrey Coghlan, told the Asbury Park Press a psychologist and psychiatrist have evaluated Miraglia and declared him to be paranoid-schizophrenic.

[horror_master]

Why do people always abused the insantity defense.