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COURTS Monica on the stand: 'I generally shoot my animals more than once' Comment By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 21, 2015 at 11:13 AM Updated Apr 22, 2015 at 12:12 PM By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 21, 2015 at 11:13 AM Updated Apr 22, 2015 at 12:12 PM » RELATED CONTENT • Serial killer's squalor • Serial killer Susan Monica found guilty on all charges, gets 50 years... • Monica signed card, 'from sweetest murderer' • Monica claims she never acted on murderous thoughts • Argument over stolen guns led to first shooting, Monica says • Susan Monica's confession tapes reveal gory details, show changing stories... » Social News In more than an hour of rambling testimony Tuesday, replete with changing stories and references to the slaughter of livestock, Susan Monica said she was in fear for her life when she fatally shot handyman Stephen Frank Delicino during a 2012 incident on Monica's Wimer-area farm. Taking the stand in her trial for two separate murders, Monica, 66, said Delicino "went nuts" when she confronted him about a pistol and a rifle she said had been stolen from her bedroom. She described Delicino, 59, as a mentally slow but "meticulous" thief who previously had spent time in prison for assaulting a police officer. Monica, who said she had worked as an unlicensed contractor since her 1991 move to Oregon, said she'd met Delicino through friends who lived up the road from her. Delicino had worked for the couple doing maintenance around their home, she said. "He was keeping their property immaculate," she said. While describing Delicino as her "best friend," Monica said the handyman had a drinking problem that he'd often support by stealing. "He would drink half a case of beer during the day and half a case of beer at night," she said. "All he'd ever want (for payment) was a case of beer." Monica, who outweighed Delicino by about 100 pounds, testified that she was armed with both a rifle and pistol during the confrontation. She said she shot Delicino with the pistol after he trapped her in a room inside the barn. Delicino fell at first, she said, before chasing her through the barn. Monica said she shot him several more times with the pistol before dropping it during a struggle to keep hold of the rifle. She said Delicino was on the ground, grabbing onto her leg when she shot him a final three times in the head with the rifle. Assisted by her attorney, Christine Herbert, Monica demonstrated the position she said Delicino was in when she fired her final shots, doubled-over on the ground with his hands around Monica's ankles. As Herbert craned her arm upward, imitating a standing person aiming a rifle one-handed at a target directly below, one gallery member muttered, "That's a weird angle." Monica testified that she ran and hid after breaking free from Delicino's grasp, which she said was still strong enough that she dragged his body with her on her first few steps toward the door. "I've heard about the death-grasp thing but, of course, had never experienced it myself," she said. When she returned, she said, four of her pigs had surrounded him and were licking his wounds. When asked by Herbert why she didn't fire the gun to scare the pigs off, Monica said it wouldn't have worked. From slaughtering pigs with a firearm in the past, she said, she gathered that they weren't particularly afraid of guns. The second victim, Robert Harry Haney, was too far gone to save when she found him half-eaten by her pigs in September 2013, Monica testified. "It looked like that (motion) picture 'Saving Private Ryan,' " she said, referring to the blockbuster film's grisly battle scenes. "The only difference was that his pelvis was still attached." When Deputy District Attorney Allan Smith asked Monica on cross examination whether she knew exactly how many times she'd shot Haney, her response drew muffled groans from the gallery: "I generally shoot my animals more than once," she said. Monica previously had told investigators that Haney was moaning when she found him in the pig pen. She said that after hearing state and defense medical experts, she's convinced Haney was dead before she shot him twice in the head. When Smith pressed her on her changing statements regarding the position of Haney's body, which she originally said she found face-up in the pen but was face-down when she returned from the house with a gun, Monica said the pigs must have moved the body. She also said that she let her pigs feed on the bodies for at most a few days, contradicting previous statements that the pigs fed on the bodies for weeks before she buried the remains. At one point, Herbert asked her, "Do you consider yourself a murderer?" "No," Monica replied. "Not at all." State Deputy Medical Examiner James Olson testified Tuesday morning that Delicino and Haney, 56, both died from gunshot wounds to the head. Olson said he identified at least three bullet holes in the back of Delicino's skull during his autopsy, one of which may have been the entrance point for two different bullets. One flattened bullet was found in Delicino's skull, and Olson testified he recovered two .22-caliber bullets from inside Haney's skull. Olson said that if Monica did, in fact, hear Haney moaning, it means he probably wasn't dying. Most noises typically made by air escaping from dead bodies would be too quiet to be heard over the sound of the pigs, he testified. Dr. Michael Propst, a forensic pathologist hired by Monica's defense, said there was still a slight possibility that Monica might have heard Haney making involuntary noise as he lay dying. Monica told Smith on cross-examination that she wished she'd never told investigators about Delicino's body, which she led investigators to after they discovered part of Haney's leg near her pig pen. She told Smith she didn't think deputies would have found Delicino's remains otherwise, which she said would have been for the better. "They tore his body apart," she yelled, drawing a rebuke from Barnack. "A third of his body is still out there on my property because of you!" Reach reporter Thomas Moriarty at 541-776-4471, or by email at [email protected] . Follow him at @ThomasDMoriarty . By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Thomas Moriarty Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 21, 2015 at 11:13 AM Updated Apr 22, 2015 at 12:12 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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