Thread: Women Cite Lewd Calls After Housewife's Rape, Murder

http://www.wral.com/news/8456235/detail.html

Woman Slain In Her Own Home

POSTED: 7:25 am EDT April 4, 2006

NEW CITY, N.Y -- Hours after a suburban housewife was raped and murdered, her sister received a call made from the dead woman's cell phone in which a man lewdly described having sex with her, the sister testified Monday.

Prosecutors say the caller was Douglas Herrera Castellanos, who is on trial for the murder of Mary Nagle, 42. They charge that Herrera, who had been assigned by a contractor to clean the Nagle family's deck, raped and brutally killed her in her bedroom last April 29.

Testifying on what would have been Nagle's 43rd birthday, her sister, Donna McGrath, of Yarmouth Port, Mass., said the caller told her he wanted to have sex with her, too. Knowing that the police were trying to find the killer, she tried unsuccessfully to get him to tell her where he was, then gave up and said, "Why did you have to hurt her?"

McGrath was among five women who testified Monday about getting calls from Nagle's phone after she was killed. Each said the caller was a man with a Spanish-speaking accent. Three of the calls were sexually obscene.

"He kept saying pornographic, dirty things to me," said Anna Solicito, of New City, a friend of Nagle's. "He was very calm, very matter-of-fact, like he enjoyed what he was saying."

Prosecutors say Herrera made the calls to women whose names he found in the cell phone's directory. They say he called the women as he ran from the murder scene, the Nagle home in New City.

Two of the women said they had not yet heard of Nagle's death and tried to reach her after getting the mysterious calls, only to reach voice mail.

A telephone company employee testified previously that Nagle's cell phone was used for more than 50 calls after she died, including several to Guatemala, Herrera's homeland.

Outside court, McGrath said she avoided looking at her many relatives in the courtroom "because I was afraid I would cry." But she purposely looked at Herrera, she said, because "I just wanted to see the person who did this."

Earlier, one of the detectives who conducted the first police interview of Herrera said the defendant repeatedly denied killing or raping Nagle.

"How did she die?" Detective Michael Novotny said he asked Herrera.

"I don't know," he said was the reply.

"Did you have sex with her?"

"No, senor."

"Did you kill this lady?"

"No."

Defense attorney Barry Weiss, trying to persuade the jury that Herrera was intoxicated when the murder was committed, brought out that the suspect was not tested for alcohol although detectives smelled beer on his breath. He also noted that the interview was not recorded, although audio- and videotaping equipment was in the police station where the questioning took place.

Herrera, whose visa expired five years ago, is charged with first- and second-degree murder, rape and other crimes and could face life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Weiss is considering having him testify on Tuesday.

Nagle's husband, Daniel Nagle, said outside court that their children, a 9-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy, had made birthday gifts for their mother and insisted on a party Monday night, "so we're going to celebrate Mary's life."

http://www.wral.com/news/8456372/detail.html

POSTED: 3:45 pm EST March 23, 2006



NEW CITY, N.Y -- A prosecutor described in nightmarish detail Thursday the rape, mutilation and killing of a suburban housewife, allegedly at the hands of a worker who was supposed to be power-washing her deck.

The assault on 42-year-old Mary Nagle was so brutal that crime-scene investigators found a piece of her ear and hanks of her hair scattered around her bedroom, Rockland County District Attorney Michael Bongiorno said at the start of the defendant's trial. One of the victim's fingers was nearly amputated as she tried to fend off her attacker.

The April 29 killing, in a quiet, manicured neighborhood of New City, exposed the danger of a common situation in the suburbs -- the husband at work, the kids at school, the housewife home alone and a contractor on the scene, often with access to the house.

Bongiorno said Nagle was in her bedroom, changing into tennis clothes, when the attacker sneaked in with his knife, "tearing her clothes off, beating her mercilessly, slashing her with the razor."

"Mary Nagle put up a courageous struggle, but she was no match," he said. The attack culminated Nagle being strangled so hard that it broke a bone in her neck, he said.

Among Nagle's relatives and friends in the courtroom gallery Thursday, some wept as Bongiorno presented his opening statement. Her husband Dan, who was not permitted inside because he is to be a witness, said afterward, "It's a difficult time and it will always be a difficult time." He said the couple's children, a first-grade girl and a fourth-grade boy, "are doing good." His feelings about the defendant, he said, were "unmentionable."

Ronald Douglas Herrera Castellanos, 30, is charged with 15 counts of first- and second-degree murder, most of them based on the allegation that he killed Nagle while committing other felonies including rape, robbery and burglary. He is also charged with those crimes separately. If convicted of first-degree murder, he would face life in prison with no chance of parole.

His attorney, Barry Weiss, decided not to make an opening statement for the defense. Outside the courtroom, he said, "We will test all the claims made by the people." He said he has not decided whether Herrera, an immigrant from Guatemala whose visa expired in 2001, will testify.

Diane Vandel of Hopewell Junction, a friend of Nagle's sister, said before the court session, "Everybody I know has changed the way they do things because we feel so vulnerable now. I just had two men deliver appliances and I made sure someone was home with me."

As Bongiorno addressed the jury, Herrera, in a brown suit, listened to a Spanish translation. When the district attorney pointed to him on occasion, Herrera looked directly at him.

The prosecutor alleged that Herrera took off his bloodied shirt and pants and put on fresh clothes that belonged to Dan Nagle. He also tried to wash off blood in the bathroom, he said. And as he fled, he passed Mary Nagle's sister Ann Fallon, who had come looking for her because of the missed tennis date.

Fallon saw blood outside the bedroom and called police, who found "a scene out of a horror movie," the district attorney said. The Clarkstown police force, which covers New City, searched the area and Herrera was spotted a mile away from a police helicopter. He was arrested and charged with murder, and within a few days police found his discarded original clothes and Nagle's cell phone and wallet, which Herrera allegedly stole.

As he was fleeing, police said, Herrera made several calls to numbers programmed into Nagle's phone, lewdly describing what he had done. Bongiorno said Thursday that the calls were made specifically to female friends and relatives.

The district attorney said investigators had a trove of DNA evidence to work with. Nagle's blood was found on all the clothes Herrera wore, he said. Herrera also left behind his own blood, from cuts on his hand, arms and neck, as well as his semen, he said. And Herrera and Nagle had each other's DNA under their fingernails, he said.

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