Fw: survivor of child rape sentenced to death
Graeme Bacque (gbacque@idirect.com)
Fri, 16 Oct 1998 00:39:57 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <lsharman@mail.microage-tb.com>
To: acaadc@aol.com <acaadc@aol.com>
Date: Thursday, October 15, 1998 9:25 PM
Subject: survivor of child rape sentenced to death
Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles, WA
AP 10/11/98 Family Tells of abuse trying to save killer=92s life
YAKIMA--Jeremy Vargas Sagastegui will talk about almost anything
except his childhood. When police came to his Tri-Cities apartment in
November 1995, he told them where to find the murder weapon.
In the courtroom, acting as his own lawyer, he volunteered that
he felt no remorse and urged a Benton County jury to sentence him to
death. Now locked up at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla, Sagastegu=
i
has spoken with reporters, discussing the murders, life in prison and his
execution, scheduled for Tuesday. But he won=92t talk about his youth. =93=
I
prefer to keep that to myself,=94 he has said over and over again. In an
effort to save her son=92s life, Sagastegui=92s mother and other relative=
s have
come forward with the sordid details of the abuse of Sagastegui, known to
family and friends as Arthur. As a child, he was repeatedly raped anally
and orally by close relatives and neighbors, according to family
affidavits. As a result, Sagastegui is mentally ill and should not have
been allowed to make his own legal decisions, his mother, Cayetana =93Kat=
ie=94
Vargas contends. One of his cousins recalls a tragic bond with Sagastegui=
:
=93We were very close. Both of us were molested throughout our childhood.
We spent most of our childhood pretending things did not happen. Every m=
an
that we came in contact with through out childhood molested us.=94
Another cousin says: =93There are a lot of pedophiles in our family,
almost all the men....All of us kids learned to try and stay away from ou=
r
male relatives. (Sagastegui) was an easy target, he never learned to figh=
t
back.=94 And this: =93(A male relative) ran a candy store. He used to ge=
t us
kids in there and lock the door and give us candy in return for touching =
us
or us touching him. (The relative) would keep (Sagastegui) in the store t=
he
longest.=94
Sagastegui, 27, was a child of rape, said his mother, now 44.
=93I hated being pregnant with Jeremy. I used to hit my stomach
and tell my unborn child that I hated it,=94 she says in an affidavit.
His mother says he got sick with a high fever as an infant, and
had seizures. He developed severe headaches as a child. By the time he
was 13, a cousin recalls, he stopped going to school, started smoking pot=
,
and was hanging out with the bums at Columbia River Park. At 14, another
affidavit says, he was working as a prostitute. He was miserable and spo=
ke
of suicide. By the time he reached his 20s, his behavior was becoming
increasingly bizarre, he seemed to have several personalities, each with =
a
different name such as Adam and ChiChi, his mothers says. =93For about a =
year
prior to the killings, (Sagastegui) complained about voices in his head,
telling him to hurt or kill me or the kids,=94 Vargas says.
Three months before the killings, he was temporarily committed
for mental treatment but did not stay. A doctor told Vargas that her son
was schizophrenic and extremely manic depressive, she says.
Vargas has argued that her son refuses to appeal his death
sentence because he has a death wish. Sagastegui agrees.