HE KILLED HER

Paul M. Anderson

LOS ANGELES -- In an unusual move, the lawyer for a man charged with

the torture-murder of a Glendale woman admitted his client’s guilt in Los

Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday in order to try to save the man’s

life.

Anthony Roy Shivers faces the death penalty if convicted of the first

degree murder of Jeanette Cohen because he is accused of torturing her to

death. Alan Gelfand, the deputy public defender representing Shivers,

will try to convince jurors that while the former California Highway

Patrol dispatcher killed Cohen, Shivers did not intend to torture her and

that the slaying was a crime of passion, Gelfand told jurors during

opening statements in the trial.

Gelfand hopes jurors will convict Shivers of manslaughter instead of

first-degree murder, sparing him from the death penalty.

Prosecutor Ernie Norris told jurors he will prove Shivers choked Cohen

and when that failed, he slammed a 10-pound weight over her head. The

case against Shivers will focus on the 4-page diary Shivers allegedly

kept that detailed the murder and the physical evidence linking him to

the crime scene, Norris said.

“The defense does not dispute that Anthony Shivers killed Jeanette

Cohen,” Gelfand told jurors. “The question I want you to focus upon as

you hear the evidence in this case is the ‘Why’ question.”

Gelfand has said experts will testify Shivers suffered from

narcissistic rage.

“What the evidence will establish is that he killed with great rage,

anger and emotion,” Gelfand said.

Shivers was orphaned at 10 and had issues about marital infidelity

because his first marriage ended when his wife slept with one of his

friends, Gelfand said.

Shivers and Cohen, who had dated for about six months, were talking

about getting back together Aug. 9, 1997, the night before she was

murdered, Gelfand said. He said hey spent the evening together talking

about their relationship, which ended when Shivers accused her of being

unfaithful to him.

Shivers, who was taking prescription medicine, had been drinking

heavily through the night he spent with Cohen, Gelfand said. At some

point, she admitted being unfaithful “in a humiliating and demeaning

way,” igniting Shivers’ rage, Gelfand said.

Gelfand argued that Shivers did not torture Cohen when he tried to

choke her by hand and rope before fracturing her skull with the dumbbell.

Gelfand tried to portray Shivers as an inept killer who tried to cover

his tracks.

Norman Benefield, an ex-boyfriend of Cohen’s, recalled how friends and

family gathered in August 1997 to work on finding the missing Cohen.

Shivers came to the meeting of friends and family and asked Cohen’s

mother if she knew where her daughter was.

“I do remember then Mr. Shivers saying Jeanette was a promiscuous

‘bitch’ and then he asked me if she ever (had oral sex) with me,”

Benefield said. “I thought it was strange that that was all he could

think about when she was missing.”

Under cross-examination, Benefield admitted he had run-ins with Cohen

when they dated and that he called police when she allegedly hit him. He

also testified Cohen rammed his Corvette into a wall when she was angry

with him.

“When she was angry she knew what to do to get you going, to press

your buttons, didn’t she?” Gelfand asked Benefield, who agreed.

Marty Avila, a childhood friend of Cohen’s, said after the hearing

that Cohen was the type of person who didn’t mince words.

“She was a straightforward, honest person,” Avila said. “Sometimes

people didn’t like to hear it.”

Norris put several forensics and law enforcement experts on the stand

Wednesday to testify about evidence linking Shivers to the murder scene

and to explain how Cohen was killed.

Cohen’s body was tied up with speaker wires and stuffed into a

computer box, Norris said. Cohen, 28, was 5-feet-5-inches tall and

weighed 118 pounds, Dr. Stephanie Erlich from the L.A. County Coroner’s

office testified.

Erlich, who did the autopsy on Cohen, said the box was 12 to 15 inches

deep, 24 inches wide and 20 inches high.

“She fit very, very, very tightly,” Erlich said.

Erlich also testified how Cohen suffered two skull fractures, the

biggest one being a 5- to 6-inch crack in the back of the head. She also

testified that several of the abrasions and contusions she suffered in

her brain likely came from blows to the head.

Cohen’s eyes also bled, probably as a result of strangulation, Erlich

testified. Cohen may have lived for a few hours after Shivers stuffed her

in the box, which was later dumped in Simi Valley, Erlich said.

Perhaps the most damning evidence was the diary entries that spelled

out Cohen’s slaying. Norris showed jurors a blown-up copy of the diary

written on stationery for Paralyzed Veterans of America.

“Finally, I choked her,” the diary entry reads. “I lifted her body on

top of mine in the sleeper position. She convulged (sic) a couple times

and then she rested. (I thought she was dead). Then she began grabbing my

arms for support. I squeezed harder, more consistently. Finally, she

shook one last time and started turning blue.”

It was an emotional day for the seven loved ones of Cohen who attended

the hearing. They fought back tears and grimaced as Norris showed jurors

photographs of Cohen’s bloodied body. Before the hearing, the seven

prayed together.