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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (650117)	10/22/2004 7:04:43 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

It's what we're all pulling for Pro - the Kerry/Clinton World Government starting 2006! Pro - this was in the local paper today. Should cheer you up! Man who killed pregnant ex-wife guilty of two crimes By Stephen Hunt The Salt Lake Tribune FARMINGTON - A Davis County murder case that established fetuses can be considered homicide victims concluded Thursday with an emotional sentencing hearing. Roger Martin MacGuire - who fatally shot his pregnant ex-wife four years ago - was sentenced to prison for 20 years to life, to run concurrently with a six-years-to-life term. He told Judge Michael Allphin and a courtroom filled with members of both her and his families: "I am so deeply sorry for the emptiness others will have to live with. I would gladly exchange my life for hers, if I could." MacGuire was charged in 2nd District Court with two counts of capital murder - one for slaying Susan MacGuire, the other for killing her unborn child. He averted a September trial by pleading guilty to one capital count and one lesser count of first-degree felony murder. Jehovah's Witness Keith Iarussi said hundreds of hours of jailhouse Bible study helped MacGuire accept full responsibility for the slayings, rather than "exhausting every legal loophole." MacGuire said he acted impulsively after learning his ex-wife was not, as he believed, planning to reconcile with him. Rather, Susan MacGuire - who was 3 1/2 months pregnant - intended to marry her new boyfriend, who was the baby's father. On Jan. 15, 2001, Roger MacGuire defied a protective order and confronted his ex-wife at the Layton insurance office where she worked. When she threatened to call police, he went to his car, retrieved a gun and shot her four times. Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson noted MacGuire left the woman bleeding on the floor, where she was found by a co-worker. She was flown to a hospital but died in surgery. MacGuire later told police he meant only to frighten his ex-wife, but the gun "just went off." Susan MacGuire was shot in the head, arm and twice in the abdomen. One bullet pierced the fetus. Kirstie Polokoff, the eldest of Susan MacGuire's six children, said she doubted the sincerity of her former stepfather's apology. "I don't believe he is sorry," she tearfully told the court. "I don't believe he is a changed man." Polokoff said she believes MacGuire - who has been married to five other women - simply decided, "If he wasn't going to be able to have my -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- mother, nobody was going to." She asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence, saying she feared for her safety and that of others if MacGuire is ever released from prison. But Crystal MacGuire called her father "a good person who did something very bad." Defense attorney Rich Mauro argued for concurrent sentencing, claiming MacGuire suffered from extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the slaying. The used-car salesman was riding an emotional roller coaster, according to testimony at a May 2001 preliminary hearing. The couple divorced in October 2000, but Susan MacGuire apparently told her ex-husband she still loved him. Gordon Christensen, Susan MacGuire's father, said "some bad decisions were made by both parties." He recalled advising Roger MacGuire to go back to California where his family lived. "He said, 'I've got to have closure,' '' Christensen said. "I suppose, now, he's got the closure." MacGuire's lawyers appealed the double-murder charges to the Utah Supreme Court, claiming the law was unclear at what stage of development a fetus becomes a person. They claimed Susan MacGuire's fetus was not a "child" because it was not old enough to have survived outside the womb. In 2002, state legislators responded to the issue by adding the phrase "at any stage of development" to the homicide statute. Then, earlier this year, the Utah Supreme Court said the statute's original language "clearly encompasses a human being at any stage of development in utero."