more arias insanity

cindytravis1

Just finished watching the latest Jodi Arias nonsense. While I’m in the midst of poring over records for our case. I don’t think people realize the extent that the worst of the worst in our society keep getting the best of the best legal assistance, at our expense. I mean that literally, you and I who pay taxes are paying for these fees to champion her — as well as the rest of the monsters like her.

The Apelt brothers got to plead “mentally retarded” flying in the face of the extensive plotting and planning and conning they did their entire adult lives. That cost taxpayers–you and me–at least TEN MILLION DOLLARS and it worked for one of them who was released from death row due to this ridiculousness. How insulting to those who are actually mentally retarded and their loved ones who can barely find services for them–or have to pay out of pocket.

Yet, I still think Arias is the most virulent and dangerous murderer I’ve ever seen. Andstill, seasoned attorneys champion her pleas–like a deeply toxic virus infecting everything that gets anywhere near it.

Her lawyers are arguing for a new trial for Arias, pointing out behavior the prosecutor did OUTSIDE of the courtroom as reason for this. Also, some of his questioning tactics of witnesses.

She wants a new trial for this, yet Travis was raked over the coals by her in the trial–called a rapist and pedophile by her attorneys throughout the several month trial–with the absolute only supporting evidence for these claims coming from the murderer herself.

The State, nor the victims, get no appeals for this heinous conduct, or ways the defense witnesses behaved totally inappropriately. I saw some of that with my own eyes.
But the murderers burden the system for decades, dredging up detail after detail demanding sympathetic and costly responses.

It makes me ill and I will keep writing about it. She didn’t even get the death penalty (which escalates this nonsense exponentially–to the tune of MILLIONS OF OUR DOLLARS) and still this circus she continues to ringmaster from prison.

Yeah, it pisses me off.

Parole

my beautiful sister, Cindy

I received word from one of my Victim Advocates yesterday that a parole hearing is to be held next Tuesday for Rudi Apelt. Rudi is the brother of the man Cindy married who assisted him with her murder for life insurance. He is actually the person who wielded the knife in the desert on the night of December 23, 1988, stabbing her multiple times and slashing her throat. This was proven in court by his own expert Vincent DiMaio. You can read about that Perry Mason moment here.

Rudi was sentenced to death in 1990 for the first-degree murder, then a life WITH parole sentence for the conspiracy. Nineteen years later, his death sentence was commuted because one Judge , Silvia Arellano, decided to release him from Death Row under a mental retardation claim. Once the Federal Supreme Court ruled that we can’t execute the mentally retarded (a ruling I agree with), suddenly both of these scheming conmen became “mentally retarded” overnight according to their attorneys, and those championing against the death penalty, one murderer at a time.

Rudi’s sentence was commuted to life WITH parole which, thankfully, Arellano decided to run consecutively to the conspiracy Life WITH parole sentence vs the concurrent option they argued for. Arellano, the biased Judge, had also ruled that nothing, not one thing, in their lives after the age of 18 could be considered in her decision–read: THE CRIMES FOR WHICH THEY WERE CONVICTED COULD NOT BE CONSIDERED IN THE DECISION FOR SENTENCE FOR THE CRIMES THEY COMMITTED. It was a terrifying time as this monster could have gone from Death Row to up for parole in five short years after that commutation.

Yes, it seems like a moot point or a formality that he should be given these yearly parole hearings for the first sentence he is serving, as he’s eight years into the second 25 to Life sentence. He could be granted parole on the first one and still turn right around to his cell to continue the second one. BUT, I’ve become a bit educated on how prisoners become victims over the years, and how attorneys make big bucks championing murderers and I don’t trust any of it. So, yes, I wrote a letter to the parole board and I guess I will each year, to make sure no one ever considers releasing him from prison or giving him any leniency.

I suspect he will continue, along with his disgusting champions, to try and play the “mentally retarded” card and since I’ve been informed it’s a fairly new parole board who may not know the case, I decided to do a bit of educating on exactly who Rudi Apelt is.

Here is a copy of my letter that my advocate will be reading into the record next Tuesday. I won’t be in AZ at that time and frankly, I never want to be in the same room with either of those sociopaths ever again so her reading my words to their faces is just fine with me.

the face of a monster

Here it is (apologies for it being dense to read–Wordpress is not letting me put paragraphs on this when I edited it):

To the AZ State Parole Board,

My name is Kathy Monkman Higham, and I am the sister of the victim in this case, Cindy Monkman. She was my only sister, 14 months older than me and her life was taken on December 23, 1988, by Rudi Apelt and his brother Michael, in the Arizona desert for one motive: money. Specifically, $400,000 in life insurance taken out on her in the weeks before her murder. Her body was discovered on Christmas Eve day. She was killed the day after the insurance papers arrived in the mail.

I’d like to offer my opinions on this murderer Rudi Apelt, and perhaps give you some information about him, as you evaluate the options related to parole for this convicted murderer.

In 2009, Rudi Apelt was deemed “mentally retarded” by one finder of fact: Judge Silvia Arellano after a lengthy death penalty appeal. He was removed from Death Row at that time, vacating the death sentence and replacing it with a grandfathered in Life WITH Parole sentence which she ordered to be run consecutively with his other Life WITH parole sentence for the conspiracy to commit murder conviction. Life WITHOUT parole was not an option in Arizona when this killer was sentenced in 1990, which is why he is even being considered for parole now.

Judge Arellano, in making her decision, deemed that no information related to Apelt beyond the age of 18 would be considered by her in the final outcome of that appeal. This means that the crimes for which he was convicted–first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder–were not considered in the determination of sentences for said crimes. Both brothers were in their late 20s at the time they slaughtered my sister in a sophisticated scheme for $400,000 in life insurance proceeds. They had been plotting this murder for about two months at least.

For purposes of this hearing, I will focus on this murderer, Rudi and the life he lived past the age of 18, and up to, and including the murder of my sister Cindy.

I have seen police reports on Rudi Apelt from Germany, which include burglary, assault, insurance fraud, and rape. Rudi served 5 years in a German prison for a violent gang rape of a woman before coming to the United States and murdering my sister. Not only did he and his cohorts rape and brutalize their victim, but they left her outside the city limits for dead, much like my sister, although he made sure Cindy was actually dead before leaving her in the desert that December night. Rudi stole the car they drove to the airport in to come to the US, and warrants were out for their arrest in Germany shortly after they left in the summer of 1988.

It was proven in court by Rudi’s own expert, famous pathologist Vincent DiMaio, that it was, in fact, Rudi himself who inflicted the majority of the stab wounds to my sister’s chest, severing her aorta, piercing her lung and then nearly decapitating her by slashing her throat. She was also severely beaten, but it was not proven who committed those blows. The knife wounds were easily established because Rudi is right handed, and his brother Michael is left-handed, and the majority of her wounds were clearly committed by a right handed individual, according to his own expert. Michael’s footprint was found on her forehead and it was presented in court that he stood on her head, as Rudi slashed Cindy’s throat as she lay helpless on the desert floor. Rudi and his brother went to the nightclub/restaurant, Bobby McGees and used Cindy’s credit card for a celebratory dinner after they killed her.

I met Rudi the very night that Cindy met the men who would kill her in a few short months. We were at a night club, and Rudi was supposed to be the date of one of our friends who had met this pair of brothers there the night before. But what I witnessed was Rudi blowing kisses and winking at me, which was highly inappropriate and distasteful. He was also meandering around the bar hitting on other women and kissing them on the dance floor. Although this behavior was rude, it does not rise to a level to prove mental retardation, in my opinion. That’s just common sense. He obviously possessed the savvy and bravado, as well as the confidence to be able to pursue multiple women at once. I do not find this behavior evident in mentally retarded people. You might ask yourselves the same question.

In the weeks leading up to murdering my sister, Rudi spent his time, with his brother, lining up other women to date, asking them to marry him, pursuing them and borrowing their cars, staying in their homes alone without his brother, lying to them, while stealing money from their purses and blank checks from their homes. He was able to convince luxury car dealers, Rolex watch distributors, and a custom home realtor that he was anything from a professional athlete (he is tall and at the time quite stocky), to an international banker to a pilot. Along with his brother, these schemes were believed, as they test drove Jaguars, BMW’s and signed a contract on a custom home, presumably pre-spending the life insurance money before they murdered my sister, as they had no other source of income other than illegal activities and schemes. All of these people came forward to testify about their experiences with these German con artists and how they believed their lies, including consistent claims of wealth.

Rudi, along with his brother, attended Cindy’s funeral and got up and spoke. I witnessed both of them driving away from the grave site laughing in their rental car. Their accomplice, Anke Dorn, testified that that very night they confessed to her that they had murdered Cindy.

Now with all of this information (which I have well documented in police reports and court records, if you would like me to provide supporting documentation), I encourage you to ask yourselves if you would assess this violent man as mentally retarded and give him any leniency for this or any other reason. If for some reason, you give him the benefit of the doubt that Judge Arellano did, then I implore you to realize, clearly, that he is a danger to any society and should never be released from prison.

Rudi Apelt is a sophisticated con artist and violent man, of this there is no doubt, whatever label one wants to put on him.

Please make sure he remains in prison for the rest of his life, however long that will be.

Thank you for your consideration.

Kathy Monkman Higham

this right here is innocence–don’t get it twisted

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Open Letter to the Jodi Arias Jurors–Second Panel

To the 11 jurors (and the alternates) who followed the law and deliberated and saw this case for what it really is: a first degree calculated homicide with deliberate intent to take an unarmed man’s life, cover it up, lie about every aspect about it for years then hijack the legal system by blaming him for his own slaughter, I say thank you for seeing Jodi Arias as she truly is–a vicious “psychopath” as one of you called her.

First of all I want to make this very important point. You all have PTSD right now. Not just from the horror you had to endure in that courtroom and images you were forced to be exposed to again and again but from the trauma of having to deal with the heinous deliberations you did. I have no doubt that every single one of you is suffering from PTSD and you would have even if the jury had been unanimous. This isn’t your fault nor is it a sign of weakness. It is a very natural result of having to sit in stunned silence for the months that you did while this Psychopath hijacked your lives while being traumatized like that. It is very important that you understand the symptoms of this and, if needed, get treatment. At the very least, keep talking to the people on the jury you bonded with as processing it verbally is one way to release the trauma from the nervous system. I am an expert in PTSD both personally and professionally and any of you may contact me for more resources if you feel you need them. Helping you is something I would feel a great sense of satisfaction participating in.

Let me introduce myself a bit. My sister Cindy, pictured on the left, was murdered here in AZ by two men who took her life for money. She was 30 years old just like Travis. She was murdered in an almost identical way as Travis–stabbed numerous times, nearly decapitated and her body left to be found by others. She also lived in Mesa. Her killers were, like Jodi, found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. That was 24 years ago and they are both still alive and in the system. The Death penalty is not for sissies when it comes to the aftermath and the burden/abuse it places on families. I’ve said many times that the death penalty opponents who have championed for the men who left my sister’s slaughtered body in the desert on Christmas Eve 1988 have been the most abusive to me personally as well as my family members. Unlike the Alexanders we had it pretty easy, comparatively, during Cindy’s killers’ original trials.

There is a whole lot on the internet about our trials but I’m not going to ask you to read it because the last thing you need to be exposed to right now is more murder. I only give that introduction so you know I have credibility with what I am saying to you.

You all made a valiant effort in that jury room and I, as a surviving sister of homicide, applaud each and every one of you. The outcome had nothing to do with any of you not doing your job or trying hard enough. It clearly had to do with an errant juror with an agenda and so much damage herself that it created a wall, a wall she now has to live behind for the rest of her life. I would not want to walk in her shoes.

I know you feel like you’ve let down the Alexanders. That is a normal feeling. Yet I believe that they know and have compassion for the impossible situation you were in. All of your brave words in the interview I’m sure have been healing for them. Keep speaking about it in any way that you can. The validation you’ve given over the TRUTH of this case is, in itself, a healing balm. The fact that you saw this horrific nightmare as it truly is, is a medicine only you can give and I’d say keep giving it. It is healing for all of us who watched the trial in the ways of feeling like she truly didn’t “beat the system”.

Now what I’m going to say may be somewhat controversial but it is my belief and I hope it helps you. I’ve been ambivalent about this phase all along. For only one reason: I know what the aftermath of the Death Penalty is on families. Yet I’ve been supportive of Jodi receiving it because she deserves it. Under the law, which you followed, it represents the appropriate sentence for her crime: the worst of the worst. I attended nearly every day of the first phase of the trial so saw every day of her 19 day testimony in person and I will tell you she is the scariest killer I’ve ever witnessed, including both men who killed my sister.

I have many reasons for that assessment but it’s not my aim today — my agenda is to help you heal and get perspective on this. Jodi’s going to prison for life (she will never get out, don’t worry about that–it will not happen) will bring long term relief to the Alexanders. Not in this moment understandably but in the long term they will truly much more easily be able to detach from her.

17 years after my sister’s killers were sentenced to death, we went back to court for a lengthy hearing to determine if they were “mentally retarded” thus ineligible for the Death Penalty. How convenient that once the Supreme Court issued a ruling that we can’t execute the mentally retarded, these highly sophisticated manipulative sociopaths became “mentally retarded” overnight.

They conducted an extensive and sophisticated conspiracy to murder my sister for money and cover it up, yet were granted this relief in the system. Without burdening you with the extensive trauma this inflicted on me and my family I will just let you know that one of them was released from Death Row as a result of that hearing. The one who had served 5 years prior for a violent rape and the one who slit Cindy’s throat was granted reprieve and now lives, like Jodi, in AZ State Prison general population.

The other killer, his brother, remains on death row. I continue to receive notices on that one several times a year. He continues to fight for appeals after appeals and we may be dragged back in to court again. He will likely never be executed nor would Jodi. He alone on death row has drained taxpayer dollars in the tens of millions simply in legal fees for people fighting to get him reprieve. This stopped completely with his brother who is now a lifer like Jodi Arias. Just some perspective.

I am not against execution, I just know how the system operates. I am a very strong person but have had to navigate these waters since I was 29 years old. I am now 55 and still navigating them. To say it hasn’t had an impact on me would be lying.

You can draw your own conclusions about what I am saying and it’s not political, it’s practical. You will come to make peace with this outcome in your own ways and I am out here sending you love and support through the air waves. If any of you ever would want to talk to me, I am open to doing so and know how to keep confidentiality (I used to be a Psychiatric Nurse so it’s in my DNA).

None of you, not one of you, did anything wrong. Please know this. Keep breathing deep…this will pass.

Now on to Juror 17 I have some things to say.

There are many things floating around the internet right now about you but for now, the only ones that I want to address are comments your fellow jurors have made about you.

You managed to position yourself right next to Jodi Arias, at this moment, in solidarity. Jodi Arias who is considered “the most hated woman in America”.

This is an interesting choice for someone who, it appears, has suffered abuse herself. You chose this position not for a “stand” you selected after a considered opinion but more for a stubborn refusal to consider the facts of this case.

This was one simple decision: did the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors in this murder?

Let me make it even more simple for you.

Did Jodi Arias’ age, mental status, claims of childhood “abuse” etc. outweigh 29 stab wounds, a near decapitation and a gunshot to the face. Deliberate, planned, premeditated and covered up at length.

You chose to cling to your own personal belief system instead of looking at the cold hard facts and consider the one obvious “yes or no” in this simple equation. You chose, for whatever personal history reasons you had/have to believe the character assassinations on the victim in this case Travis Alexander.

Let’s be clear on this one fact. The only, absolutely only reports of Travis Alexander being an abusive man to Jodi Arias in the ways she described, came from her. A known and admitted pathological liar with a serious agenda to save herself. I’m talking about the “rape” incident, the “pedophilia” incident, the “body slamming” incidents.

I agree, he may have not had good boundaries with her and you might even call him a “player”. Ok, I’ll give you that. No one has life skills to deal with a sociopath, even if you already have had to, like me.

Does this equate abuse severe enough to nearly chop off his head deliberately, with a considered plan and execution? Is this what you think an appropriate “punishment” is for stringing a woman along and, being generous, playing “mind games” with her (although I think the mind games were from Jodi to Travis personally).

Who were you really trying to protect here? Yourself? Your abusers? Your wall of denial?

What you succeeded, yes you, single handedly succeeded at, was creating a triumph for abusers everywhere. This trial and your participation in it specifically, sent a message that defense attorneys can malign a victim, a dead person (who could also be a woman or child by the way), straight from the unsubstantiated mouth of their perpetrator and find at least one person to buy that story thus excusing their crime. That person was you.

Now defenders of child molesters like Kirk Nurmi, because of you, will feel more confident in blaming those victims openly in court claiming their child victims asked for it, wanted it, deserved it. You and your stubborn wall of whatever kicked that door wide open in this high profile trial. Defense attorneys will be in search of a “you” on a jury feeling more empowered to use this “attack the victim” strategy to garner a win. They might even study your personality like a bug to understand your unique weakness they can exploit, like happened in this trial.

These are the things you have to live with now for the rest of your life. You name is linked forever with a vicious first degree murderer who planned to have sex with her victim, get him defenseless in a shower where he was as vulnerable as a person can be then attack him with a knife when he was truly trapped. That could have been a woman in that shower. Would your blindness have been the same?

This is your life legacy now and it will never leave you. That is the price you paid for indulging this pain based stubbornness you cling to. Your future will be your reward for this very ill advised decision and you will be reminded of this every day of your life even if you wake up to reality one day. This makes your life much like Jodi Arias’, imprisoned, although I suspect you have a conscience unlike the murderer which will make your suffering far greater than hers will ever be. And, like Arias, there will be no pardon. This is your life now. I feel sorry for you. I don’t think it’s what you intended but it’s what you created.

Having written these words and released them, I won’t give you any more energy but I did have to say them.

I am more interested now in placing my efforts on changes to disallow people like Kirk Nurmi, Jodi Arias, Jennifer Willmott, Maria De La Rosa and certain members of the media who supported them to further malign and abuse victims using the court system. It’s beyond the levels of human decency and We the People fund it. Can you imagine a court system which tries to blame a toddler for being raped? This is one small step away from that world. And I for one, am ready to see it change before it escalates further. This abuse of victims should pivot with this trial and I will keep speaking out about that as a taxpayer until someone hears me who matters.

To those reading out there who are also suffering from PTSD who followed this case, exacerbated by this unfathomable non-verdict, because I know there are many of you/us, I say this: please know this is real. Please don’t deny your feelings or think you can just go back to normal. This was a collective shock felt round the world and you are not alone. There is help. I know this first hand.

This felt like Evil triumphed over Good but I believe that never really sticks. That’s just my belief system and although this trial, like for many of you out there, rocked me to the core, I have a really great life. A life filled with healing and love and joy and laughter and fun that is untainted by the tragedy that has befallen my family and continues to invade. There is the largest part of me that has never been touched.

Healing is always possible.

In closing I will share the words that sifted down in to my mind on the last day of our trials: “they may have taken her life but they’re not getting mine.” Please take them and use them for yourself.

If any of you out there need resources please contact me at katiecoolady@yahoo.com and I can hopefully direct you.

Thanks for taking the time to read. May peace wash over the Alexanders and all of Travis’ loved ones today and in the coming days/weeks/months.

death penalty thoughts 1

I decided a few months ago that I would no longer attend the Jodi Arias trial in person for personal reasons. The retrial started this week and I am supporting the family from afar in my own private ways. I’m also following things on twitter where I’m uncharacteristically tweeting (probably doing it all wrong as I’m not really familiar with the system) and sharing some things about the death penalty and murder trials and this “victim” position I’ve found myself in for 25 years.

The causes that are important to me have to do with trial reform and death penalty appeals reform. Let me just preface this by saying that I am in no way attached to Cindy’s killer who remains on death row, Michael Apelt, being executed. I know the odds are very slim that we will ever see it happen and it’s not important to me. Or to the rest of my family. So let’s get that out of the way. What’s important though is he never be released from prison. When her murderers were sentenced in 1990, the State of AZ had no LWOP (Life Without the possibility Of Parole) so the only sentence that made sense was Death. They were young men, violent, dangerous predators and the death penalty was the only sentence which would maintain them in prison for the rest of their lives. It was a no brainer.

Rudi Apelt, the man who literally slit Cindy’s throat from ear to ear, was released from Death Row in 2009, 18 years after he was sentenced, on a “mental retardation” claim. In fact, it was argued for both killers as soon as the Supreme Court ruled we can’t execute the mentally retarded. Poof! They became mentally retarded. Both of these sophisticated, well planned out, well strategized murderers and con men were argued to be mentally retarded (that link takes you to a very good article on this appeal). The biased Judge, the only finder of fact, Silvia Arellano, ruled almost every single argument in their favor to the tune of seven years and 10 million dollars preparing and executing this ridiculous appellate mini trial. My Dad and I had to testify as did some of our family friends. It was clear to me Arellano held a bias and I learned at some point that she was planning to retire right after this decision. One of her most egregious rulings was that nothing, as in NOTHING could be admitted in to evidence to argue retardation after the age of 18 for the murderers. Meaning, read this carefully: EVIDENCE OF THE CRIME COULD NOT BE CONSIDERED TOWARD THE DECISION FOR THE SENTENCE FOR THE CRIME.

It has always been my belief that she intended to take out her tenure as a Judge with a big splash and let a Death Row inmate off the Row. So she set it up that way. And that she did. My Victim Impact Statement around this, that I read to a courtroom packed on the side of the killer and empty on the side of the State save my attorney, is posted at the end of this post. Please read it.

Judge Silvia Arellano who treated my family very very poorly while championing for two killers on Death Row–she released a violent killer from Death Row single handedly

The joke was kind of on all of them ultimately because those brothers had been afforded the luxury of being housed in cells on Death Row one on top of the other for many years I’m told. When you are locked in a cell 23 hours a day that is about 7 feet wide and you are 6 foot 5 and 6 foot 7 and a non-native English speaker, I suspect having your brother within barking distance through a vent is a pretty fine luxury. They lost that proximity with this win; Rudi was moved to another prison altogether and they will never see or speak to each other ever again.

Karma.

Death penalty opponents are the loudest voices out there, speaking of barking, about all kinds of causes to champion these worst of the worst of our society they’ve deemed new “victims”. They rant about many things for these murderers, not the least of which this argument about how the death penalty is so expensive. While at the same time, demanding decades of ridiculous, frivolous, lengthy and costly appeals to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars per killer. Tens of millions actually. PER KILLER. Yes, I do agree it’s expensive and I know who’s making it so. And I know who’s paying for it: you and me.

Opponents also like to spout about how the death penalty is thwarted by angry family members hell bent on vengeance. While they refuse to leave family members alone to grieve, sometimes showing up on their doorstep unannounced of, say, the sister of a murder victim asking her to assist in her sister’s murderer’s appeal. Right within a couple of weeks of the anniversary of her sister’s murder. At Christmas time. Strategized thinking this might be a good time to ambush her as she might be more raw, more vulnerable–aka more manipulatable. Unmitigated gall.

So yes, the death penalty needs reform. Why do we as a culture think it’s ok to impose a sentence we know will never really be carried out? How many people actually pay attention to what happens after a killer receives the death penalty? I’m here to tell you, not many. Not many at all, other than those championing for the killers. Most death row inmates have a better chance of being struck by lightning and killed within the confines of the prison than they ever do being executed. At least in states like AZ and CA. Yet these opponents love to use terminology like “the State wants to kill this person”. They’re not stupid. They know the chance of actual execution is almost nil. Yet they love to perpetuate the drama like this while blaming families for being “angry” “vengeful” “unforgiving”.

Dragging out the process and it’s impact on families is one of my causes that I’m using this platform to speak about because I believe “without awareness there is no choice”. I’m not some pious person spouting opinions and morality plays. I’m living this every single day.

There is another big issue related to this which I will write more about down the road. Stay tuned.

Don’t get me wrong. These concerns don’t dominate my life in the remotest way. I have a brilliant, free and enviable life (if you look at my present that is). Heck I’d envy it myself if I wasn’t living it. But I’ve had to navigate a mine field to enjoy it. I’ve learned those skills well but really, why put an innocent casualty of a sociopathic killer in a mine field to live out their life? Intentionally. And keep throwing bombs at them throughout their entire life in the name of “justice” or “saving a life”? Shame on you. And it happens to people more vulnerable than me: parents of murdered children, elderly victims, people like my brother.

I ~~think~~ know the system needs reform. I do think there needs to be a higher level of punishment for the worst of the worst in our society, like Jodi Arias so we can at least find out if it can be a deterrent. How can anyone ever research the deterrent effect of death penalty effectively when the consequence being fulfilled is so unlikely for the killer, so remote that it doesn’t even exist in the same lifetime. With killers who normally, by nature, don’t consider consequences in the first place?

I have ideas that don’t involve execution that I’d be completely happy with. One where those millions wasted on killers’ appeals could go to say, the homeless or the mentally ill. What a concept right? One where a quality of life for this evil person fits the crime, is in some way escalated and where they lose all possibility of ever being released. EVER. As it stands now, I sincerely believe a death row inmate has a higher possibility of prison release than a lifer doing time for a non violent crime. Simply because they have more help. And really really good help. At our expense whether we like it or not.

I don’t like it.

Things can change. That ~~little bitch worm~~ murderer advocate who showed up on my doorstep that December morning asking me to help Cindy’s killer get out of prison will never be able to do that again to anyone else because she did it to me. My victims’ rights lawyer, because this happened to me, changed legislation and closed the loophole to disallow this kind of victim abuse to ever happen again in the State of AZ. It was traumatic, unnecessary and abusive.

We can make a difference. And my first step is just speaking up about some of these things. With some street cred.

And I think while people are embedded in thoughts of the death penalty regarding Jodi Arias, which by the way she deserves, it’s a good time for me to be doing just that.

I hope this kicks a pebble that starts some kind of avalanche. And if anyone out there reading has a direction to point me, please send me the compass. I’m all ears.

Dedicated to my sister Cindy Monkman.

9/16/1958 – 12/23/1988

My Victim Impact Statement after the mental retardation ruling on Rudi Apelt:

Why have I chosen to take time out of my busy schedule once again to drive to Florence to give this impact statement? I ask myself the same question as I honestly don’t think anything I have to say will make much difference or cause much impact toward the decision on resentencing this defendant but the question always is “can I live with myself if certain decisions are made and know I’ve said nothing?

So, here I am with a few things to say.

I don’t intend to get in to the impact this crime itself has had on me personally or on my family. Partly because I don’t think it’s necessary at this stage and partly because I think it could potentially do more harm than good. I’ll let you fill in the blanks on how losing your only
sister/ your oldest daughter on the day before Christmas impacts on a family. To a vicious senseless murder for money.

I will tell you the impact of this particular hearing and decision over the last several years has had and has the potential to have on me and my family.

When the men who murdered my sister in this cold blooded plot were sentenced to death, we were told there were two options in the State of AZ — Life with the possibility of parole in 25 years and Death which meant they would never get out of prison. Of course, no matter how we might have felt politically about the death penalty, we knew these were young men and would still be as violent and dangerous in 25 years, perhaps more so and the Death Penalty was the only sentence that insured the public’s and our safety from them forever. We were
warned that in time, the tables would turn, the victim would be forgotten and the murderers would be seen as victims. Well that time has come, over 20 years after the loss of my sister. It’s still hard to fathom but it’s the absolute reality now.

I am here to remind the court who the true victim of this crime was, and still is. It was my sister Cindy who was my only sister, fourteen months older than me, whose life was taken for one motive: money. On the day before we were to fly home for Christmas on Christmas eve 1988. I was 29 years old and she was 30. We grew up together with each other to lean on as we lost our mother at a very young age. She was kind and truly an innocent and the defense in both trials could produce no evidence about her in a derogatory way — there simply was none. She was like a lamb to slaughter with the men who murdered her — Rudi and Michael Apelt.

The victim was not and still is not the man, Rudi Apelt, who is being resentenced today. The man who wielded the knife that slashed Cindy’s throat from ear to ear leaving her to be discovered by a young boy in the desert on Christmas Eve.. Rudi Apelt, who has served another prison sentence for a violent rape of another woman in Germany. Rudi Apelt
who conned many women throughout the Phoenix area during the months prior to the murder of my sister for money, use of their car, a living situation in their home, procurement of goods, all of these actions performed ALONE and not in the presence of his brother or any other familiar person to him. All of these facts are clearly documented in the trial transcripts. He is a violent man, a repeat offender and took the life of my sister for money. I do not believe he demonstrates any signs of mental retardation in the commission of this crime–quite
the contrary, in fact. Sophisticated, calculated and cold-blooded homicide are not adjectives I would ascribe to the mentally retarded.

I am here also to tell you the impact that just this one hearing lasting several years has had on my family. My 78-year-old father was required to testify and cancel a prepaid trip to China because the Court would not consider a 2-week postponement of the original hearing
for this which he was required to testify at. This postponement was the one and only thing my family ever asked of this Court in the many YEARS leading up to this hearing and it was not granted. This was perhaps my father’s only opportunity to go to China for the rest of his lfe.
Yet the defense in this case was granted delay after delay over a period of years causing me and my family to be inconvenienced, put plans on hold, prepare ourselves emotionally only to be told yet another delay for the defense for years upon years.

I opened my door one December day, 3 years go, ironically the same day I was planning to decorate my house for Christmas which you can imagine what a task that is for me year after year seeing my sister’s bloody body was discovered in the desert on Christmas Eve morning, only to find an advocate for Rudi Apelt misrepresenting herself to me and asking for my cooperation with this very issue–the mental retardation hearing. And this advocate bald-faced lied to me in my own home assuring me that this murderer, if reversed in sentence, would be
resentenced to life WITHOUT parole. Yes of course she knew this was impossible due to sentencing guidelines yet chose to manipulate me in this way. What did I or my family ever do to deserve this kind of treatment? Laws have been changed now to disallow the abuse of victims in this manner in the State of AZ because of this heinous situation I endured.

My father and I endured sitting in a courtroom often being the only representatives on the side of the State while onlookers filled the side of the defendant hoping obviously to glean some kind of clues for arguing their murderer clients were also mentally retarded to avoid the ultimate penalty.

I have personally learned that in addition to the tides of sympathy swinging away from the murder victim to the murderer over the years that the “worst of the worst” in our society, once on Death Row, receive the “best of the best” when it comes to legal assistance. I am
convinced that a death row inmate has a greater chance of being released from prison than a “lifer” serving a term for a nonviolent crime, simply because more people care about those on Death Row. The murderers also receive free websites which read like singles ads soliciting donations, penpals, wives and the like. When the “serial shooter” claimed to desire the death penalty in his sentencing hearing this year, I completely understood what was motivating him — and it most certainly wasn’t a possibility of execution.

My one consolation with this preposterous ruling/resentencing is that finally Rudi Apelt will receive what he deserves. Which is to be forgotten, finally. I have no doubt that those helping so fervently over the years will drop him like a hot potato once he no longer holds the prestige of Death Row status and he will fade in to the woodwork with all the other violent common criminals in the general population. Until of course we are asked to appear at parole hearings. Then we will be forced to remember him and his violence once again. When do we ever
get to let this go? Do we?

Finally, I did not come all the way down here with any delusions that my words would have any true impact whatsoever on the outcome of this hearing. Biases have been shown throughout and I hold no fantasies that my family’s feelings and wishes will fall in to consideration. Yet let it be known, we all have a certain degree of terror at the thought of
Rudi Apelt ever being released from prison due to a possible switch to concurrent sentences where he could have the possibility of actually being paroled. Yes that terrifies my family and me personally. This again is the man who took my sister in to the desert, and among other
violent acts, slit her throat. Then enjoyed a celebratory meal with his co-murderer/conspirators at a restaurant using her credit card right after commiting the murder. Call it what you want, but I call that nothing but a DANGER TO SOCIETY. His sentences, at the very least,
need to remain CONSECUTIVE to protect society from his violence. Call him mentally retarded, call him an imbecile, call him an idiot savant, whatever you wish. But call his behavior what it has been: VIOLENT and DANGEROUS.

The reason I did come though is in hopes that down the road, whatever decision is reached as a result of this resentencing hearing is REVIEWED by hopefully a non biased individual who has no political agenda at stake. Then that a sound decision will be made then that will prohibit this dangerous individual Rudi Apelt from ever being released from prison again. And to allow me and my family to finally move forward without ever having to worry about him again. And to hopefully get to begin to live a life where we get to focus on remembering my sister’s life and not her violent death.

	Cathy Kjos on foul-weather friendship
	Kim in NM on foul-weather friendship
	Susan Baker on fyi
	katiecoolady on fyi
	pilcherje on fyi

two innocents

(to innocence)

victim advocacy

more arias insanity

Parole

Open Letter to the Jodi Arias Jurors–Second Panel

death penalty thoughts 1