Yosemite Murder Suspect Pleads Guilty

Sept. 13, 2000 -- A motel handyman avoided the federal death penalty today by pleading guilty in the decapitation of a naturalist at Yosemite National Park. But he could still face the death penalty if convicted on state charges of killing three sightseers.

Attorneys for Cary Stayner, 39, submitted a written guilty plea to charges of murder, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault in the July 21,1999, death of Joie Armstrong. Armstrong led nature tours in Yosemite National Park. Her slaying was a federal case because her body was found in the national park.

Federal prosecutors’ decision to agree to a plea deal was based partly on the wishes of Armstrong’s family. The victim’s mother, Lesli Armstrong, had said publicly that she could not bear to hear grisly details of her daughter’s death in a trial.

U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii in Fresno, Calif., approved the plea bargain. Instead of the death penalty, Stayner faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. His formal sentencing will take place November 30.

Taking His Story to the GraveThe plea agreement, which Stayner, his lawyer and prosecutors signedSept. 6, also requires that he take his story to his grave and not profit from Armstrong’s death in any way. Stayner had told local newspapers and news stations he wanted to see his story told in a made-for-TV movie. But his plea agreement thwarts that desire.

“After the entry of judgment in this case until his death hewill not speak to anyone, write to anyone, or communicate to anyoneabout the death of Joie Ruth Armstrong,” the agreement states. Theonly exception is any testimony or communication with his lawyerregarding his state or federal murder cases.

In order to guarantee that he never profits from his story, heagreed to a $10 million restitution order to go to a fund inArmstrong’s name.

State Continues Death Pursuit

The plea bargain in Armstrong’s case does not affect state prosecutors’ plan to seek thedeath penalty against Stayner in the slayings of Carole Sund, 42,her daughter Juli, 15, and family friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, ofCordoba, Argentina.

The three women were killed five months before Armstrong duringa sightseeing trip to Yosemite National Park. They had been stayingat the Cedar Lodge in El Portal, where Stayner lived and worked as a handyman.

Once Stayner is formally sentenced in Armstrong’s slaying, Mariposa County prosecutors will be able to go forward in the Sund-Pelosso murder cases.

Carole Carrington, Mrs. Sund’s mother, said Tuesday she wassurprised prosecutors agreed to the guilty plea in Armstrong’scase, since they had been pushing for the death penalty. Unlike the Armstrongs, she wants prosecutors to bring Stayner to trial and fears death-penalty opponents may try to portray him as another death-row victim.

“I’d like to get it going,” she said. “I just hope they have it all figured outnow. I have some fears about what he may bedoing, or what others are doing for him while he’s inprison. We don’t want him to become a hero.”

Alleged ConfessionsThe Sunds and Pelosso disappeared from the Cedar Lodge motel near Yosemite’s Vacation Valley on Feb. 15, 1999. FBI officials believe Stayner forced his way into their room and sexually assauted Juli Sund and Pelosso before killing all three women. The bodies of Carole Sund and Pelosso were found hidden in the burned-out wreck of their rental car. Juli Sund’s body was found several days later, dumped near a lake. Her throat had been slashed.

Stayner has been in custody sincehis arrest three days after Armstrong’s body was recovered near her housing in Yosemite last July. He is being held in isolation at the Fresno County Jail.

Prosecutors claim he has confessed to single-handedly killing all four women. He has publicly apologized to the victims’ families, sending a jailhouse letter to The Fresno Bee last year. Officials also say Stayner also showed them the bloody knives he said he used in the killings.

Stayner is a brother of Steve Stayner, who was at the center of a highlypublicized kidnapping case two decades ago. Steven was snatched offa Merced, Calif., street at age 7 in 1972. He remained missing for sevenyears, then was hailed as a hero for going to police whenhis abductor kidnapped another boy.

Steven died in 1989, at age 24, ina collision with a hit-and-run driver.The Associated Press contributed to this report.