From Andy Furillo:
"They didn't have to kill her," Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene told the first of two juries he addressed in his opening statements today in the murder trials of two Sacramento teenagers accused of beating 90-year-old Marie Oliver to death three years ago with her own cane.
The prosecutors delivered his brief but dramatic remarks in front of a backdrop of autopsy photos on the courtroom screen of Oliver, who was killed by blunt force trauma in a burglary-robbery attack that authorities say was administered by Calvin Eugene Pearson, 20, and Daniel Alan Russell, 19.
The defendants were both 16 at the time of Oliver's April 15, 2006, death inside her home in the 2700 block of Ellen Street.
"The evidence will show they did not have to kill her," Greene told the Russell jury. The prosecutor said "they killed Miss Oliver for one reason and one reason only: because they could. Simply because they could. They beat her, they beat her and they beat her....They beat her to death simply because they could. Simple case, simple facts, first-degree murder."
Greene told the Pearson jury, "They beat her with her own cane." Then he said it again, "They beat her with her own cane. They punched her. They kicked her, and killed her."
The prosecutor said the defendants planned the killing "a few days before" they executed it.
"They took her money, her jewelry and her briefcase," Greene said. "They laugh about it, talk about it, how they should have been more careful. They do everything but say they're sorry for what they did."
Russell's lawyer, Jo Ann Harris, asked her jury to "keep an open mind" in the case and to "listen closely to the evidence." She said she will ask the panel to acquit her client at the end of trial.
Pearson's attorney, Russell W. Miller, withheld his opening statement.
The Sacramento Superior Court case is being held in front of Judge Maryanne G. Gilliard.
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