Handyman to be sentenced to life for Yosemite killing

Thursday, November 30th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) _ A motel handyman who confessed to beheading a Yosemite National Park naturalist and then fell silent by court agreement, will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Carl Stayner avoided the death penalty by admitting to killing 26-year-old Joie Armstrong and through a plea agreement, which forbids him from speaking about the crime.

He was expected to read a short statement expressing remorse for the crime at his sentencing hearing Thursday.

``I would anticipate he will basically just apologize,'' federal defender Robert W. Rainwater said.

Stayner is also accused of killing three Yosemite tourists, Carole Sund, 42, her daughter Juli, 15, and their Argentine friend Silvina Pelosso, 16.

His father, Delbert Stayner, visits him weekly and said they've never talked about the slayings.

``I just can't believe him doing these things,'' the 67-year-old retired mechanic Delbert Stayner said Wednesday.

The three tourists were killed in February 1999 during a sightseeing trip to Yosemite. They had been staying at the remote motel outside the park's western gate, where Stayner lived and worked. He still could face the death penalty if found guilty for those slayings.

In his confession in U.S. District Court in September, Stayner spoke graphically of killing Armstrong, who led children on nature hikes. Her headless body was found in woods near where she lived in the park.

Stayner, 39, was arrested three days later, concluding a sweeping investigation and manhunt that began five months earlier when the three women tourists disappeared.

Despite the gag order, part of Stayner's story is expected to become public when court records are unsealed after sentencing Thursday on orders of Judge Anthony W. Ishii.

Stayner appealed and Ishii ruled Wednesday that defense lawyers have until Dec. 8 to obtain a stay from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

If the appeals court doesn't issue a stay by that date, the files will be unsealed, said Neil Shapiro, a lawyer representing a group of media organizations including The Associated Press.

One of the documents was filed by prosecutors seeking the death penalty and contains the most heinous portions of Stayner's confession to killing Armstrong, a law enforcement official told the AP.

Defense lawyers have argued that releasing the documents could jeopardize Stayner's right to a fair trial in state court for the murders of Sund, her daughter and Pelosso.