Death Row Inmate Gets Three Additional Life Terms
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- An inmate already sentenced to death for murdering a teenager and a woman was resentenced to three consecutive life terms for other attacks he committed during a series of 1984 break-ins.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx rejected Thursday arguments by defense attorney Chris Haddad that Duane Owen had such severe mental problems that his earlier sentence deserved mitigation.
Owen is sentenced to die for the March 1984 slashing death of 14-year-old Karen Slattery while she was baby-sitting in a Delray Beach home and the murder of Georgianna Worden, 38. Authorities said he broke into Worden's Boca Raton home two months after Slattery's killing, raped her and fatally beat her with a hammer.
He was being resentenced Thursday for other break-ins and attacks. An appeals court had ruled that Owen had a right to a new sentencing because of a sentencing guideline technicality at the time of his convictions.
Haddad argued that Owen was insane because he believed that he was a female trapped in a man's body and that by attacking women, their hormones could be transferred to him.
"He was completely out of touch with reality and so disturbed that he had no hope of trying to straighten out his life," Haddad said.
Owen saw his father rape his mother and watched his mother drink herself to death, Haddad said. His father committed suicide, and later he lived in an orphanage, where he was sexually assaulted by other children, Haddad said. Years of painful experiences resulted in schizophrenia, Haddad argued.
But prosecutor Wayne Chalu dismissed the claims and called Owen a sociopath who was intelligent enough to draft his own court pleading from prison.
After many appeals, including six that reached the Florida Supreme Court, Owen has nearly exhausted his death penalty appeals, said Assistant Attorney General Celia Terenzio. He has only a couple of appeals remaining before a death warrant can be signed, Terenzio said.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- An inmate already sentenced to death for murdering a teenager and a woman was resentenced to three consecutive life terms for other attacks he committed during a series of 1984 break-ins.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx rejected Thursday arguments by defense attorney Chris Haddad that Duane Owen had such severe mental problems that his earlier sentence deserved mitigation.
Owen is sentenced to die for the March 1984 slashing death of 14-year-old Karen Slattery while she was baby-sitting in a Delray Beach home and the murder of Georgianna Worden, 38. Authorities said he broke into Worden's Boca Raton home two months after Slattery's killing, raped her and fatally beat her with a hammer.
He was being resentenced Thursday for other break-ins and attacks. An appeals court had ruled that Owen had a right to a new sentencing because of a sentencing guideline technicality at the time of his convictions.
Haddad argued that Owen was insane because he believed that he was a female trapped in a man's body and that by attacking women, their hormones could be transferred to him.
"He was completely out of touch with reality and so disturbed that he had no hope of trying to straighten out his life," Haddad said.
Owen saw his father rape his mother and watched his mother drink herself to death, Haddad said. His father committed suicide, and later he lived in an orphanage, where he was sexually assaulted by other children, Haddad said. Years of painful experiences resulted in schizophrenia, Haddad argued.
But prosecutor Wayne Chalu dismissed the claims and called Owen a sociopath who was intelligent enough to draft his own court pleading from prison.
After many appeals, including six that reached the Florida Supreme Court, Owen has nearly exhausted his death penalty appeals, said Assistant Attorney General Celia Terenzio. He has only a couple of appeals remaining before a death warrant can be signed, Terenzio said.
