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."