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DOUBLE MURDER TRIAL Monica told police she shot victims, let pigs feed on them Defense claims her confessions don't warrant murder conviction Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 15, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 15, 2015 at 12:01 AM » RELATED CONTENT • Monica signed card, 'from sweetest murderer' • Monica claims she never acted on murderous thoughts • Argument over stolen guns led to first shooting, Monica says • Update: Monica told police her neighbors reported she'd been burying human remains... » Social News Accused serial killer Susan Monica told police that she shot her two victims in their heads 17 months apart at her Wimer farm and let her pigs eat their bodies, but her defense team asserted Tuesday her actions don't rise to the level of murder. Monica's double-murder trial opened Tuesday afternoon with jurors viewing taped confessions of Monica saying she shot 59-year-old Stephen Frank Delicino several times in the head in self-defense during an argument and a struggle. Jurors also heard the 66-year-old Monica tell investigators she shot 56-year-old Robert Harry Haney in the back of his head as a mercy killing when she found him near dead while her pigs were "just having breakfast on him." Prosecutor Mandi Gould opened the proceedings in Jackson County Circuit Court with a string of video clips of Monica's various explanations for Haney's disappearance before Monica offered information about the shootings, the pigs and her actions after their deaths. Monica admitted on tape that some of her stories' early iterations to police were "too stupid" to believe and that if she were a juror on her murder trial, "I would convict myself." Defense attorney Garren Pedemonte didn't dispute the shootings but claimed in Tuesday's opening statements that Monica's explanations for the deaths don't show the intent needed for a murder conviction, that there's no evidence to dispute Monica's self-defense claim and no proof that Haney was alive before she shot him. Pedemonte referred to "Miss Monica" as an "odd ball" but that her mannerisms — she offered to investigators in their first contact that "I threaten to kill everybody and feed them to my pigs" — will amount to a "distraction" during the two-week trial. "This case is going to be bizarre and there will be some sick and gross parts to it," Pedemonte said. Sixteen jurors were impaneled Tuesday to hear the case on Monica, who is facing two counts each of murder and abuse of a corpse and one count of identity theft for using Haney's Oregon Trail card. Jurors will be pared to 12 with four alternates when the case goes to deliberation. The indictment asserts that Monica murdered Delicino in summer 2012 and Haney was murdered in September 2013, both at her 20-acre farm in the 9100 block of West Evans Creek Road. FBI criteria for a serial killer is one who kills at least two people in separate acts that are not part of a running crime spree. Tuesday's court proceedings offered the first direct reference to the pigs' role in the case. Also, Pedemonte said in his opening statements that Monica intended to question some of the witnesses against her, but it was unclear whether the jury would be present for that questioning. Monica sat mostly silently, wearing a short, light brown wig, hooped earrings, glasses, a skirt and a blue sweater and weighing far less than the 260 pounds the 5-foot-11 woman weighed when she was arrested 15 months ago. The case started Jan. 6, 2014, as a missing person's case involving Haney, a handyman who lived on Monica's farm but had not contacted family members in about three months. That investigation included an interview with Monica that afternoon at her farm, according to Jackson County sheriff's Detective Eric Henderson, the lead investigator in the case. Henderson audiotaped that interview, during which Monica abruptly gave Henderson a grim foreshadowing of the case to come. She said she wanted to get a government grant to shoot people, possibly inmates in overflowing prisons, and feed them to her pigs. "Weigh them one at a time and see how long it takes the pigs to eat them," Monica said on tape. After that interview, investigators discovered evidence Monica had used Haney's Oregon Trail card in December in Grants Pass. Deputies returned Jan. 9 with a search warrant. That was when a deputy found a leg bone believed to be Haney's next to Monica's barn, and Gould said in her opening statement that experts later found evidence of sharp cuts on the bone and determined it was Haney's. Henderson whisked Monica away to the sheriff's department for videotaped questioning, in which Henderson eventually told Monica of their discovery. She at first did not react, and Henderson eventually asked her whether detectives would find any more pieces of Haney on the farm. "If it's Robert's leg, I guess the rest of him is there somewhere," Monica said. Eventually she told police she shot Haney after discovering him lying down and the pigs eating his torso. She said she returned with a gun and shot Haney twice to alleviate his suffering after she said she saw him still breathing, according to the videotape. She left his body with the pigs for a few days, then rounded up the remains, placed them in plastic bags and stashed them in her barn, Monica told police. In Delicino's death, Monica initially told police that he shot himself five times in the head while committing suicide, according to the tapes. Eventually, she said the pair argued and that she fought off Delicino before shooting him five times with a pistol and twice with a rifle. She said she then took a nap and returned to discover her pigs on the body "enjoying a nice meal," according to the videotape. In earlier videotaped discussions with Henderson, Monica said her pigs were in a pen that had electrical fencing to keep them inside and an outside fence to keep animals such as sheep from entering. The videotapes played in court did not show Monica addressing how the pigs happened to be outside the pen when the two victims died. Monica said she left Delicino's body with the pigs for a few weeks before using a backhoe to bury his remains in a 6-foot-deep grave pointed out to investigators by Monica. Gould ended her 30-minute opening statement with a final quote from Monica: "If you wouldn't have found the leg, I wouldn't have said anything." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman .   By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Apr. 15, 2015 at 12:01 AM » 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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