Sam George Kastanis is on trial in the deaths of his wife and three children because the "police dog got off on the wrong scent and never strayed," said his attorney, Ron Yengich.
In the capital murder trial that was in its second day in 3rd District Court Tuesday, prosecutors continued working their way down a list of 28 witnesses, most of them police officers or forensics experts.Kastanis says he was in his garage the morning of Nov. 17, 1991, when each member of his family was stabbed numerous times and his three children were bludgeoned with a hammer.
Prosecutor Kent Morgan said the state will show 20 times over that Kastanis was in proximity at the time of the killings. Proving that even once will "penetrate his camouflage" and show that his story is not true, Morgan said.
Margaret Kastanis, 39, was stabbed four times in the chest and once in the back. Melissa, 11, was stabbed three times in the chest and hit as many as nine times with a hammer. Clint, 9, was stabbed in the chest at least 11 times, and Chrissy, 6, was also stabbed in the back and chest, her throat was slit and she was hit at least three times in the head with a hammer, Morgan said.
"The defendant has committed himself to the position that he was outside of the residence during any time the victims met with any violence. Under that theory, there can be no evidence revealed on himself or the victims which would show him in close proximity to a violent encounter," Morgan said.
Blood spatters and stains, fingerprints on the knife found near Margaret's body, and a hair found in Margaret's hand, supposedly belonging to Sam, will prove Sam's story untrue, Morgan said.
Yengich pounded his chest Monday as he told the six-man, six-woman jury how Margaret Kastanis stabbed herself four times in the chest after killing and bludgeoning the children. She had attempted suicide before and threatened suicide repeatedly to a number of people shortly before her death, he said. Psychological problems and a concern about what would happen to her children if she was not there to care for them led her to kill the entire family while Sam was in the garage having coffee and a cigarette, Yengich said.
"The tragedy was not the doing of Sam Kastanis, but it was, tragically, done at the hand of Margaret Kastanis," Yengich said.
Police found it unusual, when they arrived at the scene of the killings, to find that Sam slept in the basement of the home while Margaret occupied the master bedroom. "Sam Kastanis led the league in snoring," Yengich said. They had an otherwise normal relationship. He knew Margaret was having emotional trouble but was always supportive of her, Yengich said.
Police officers and firefighters responded to the house after Kastanis called 911 and reported finding Clint in a pool of blood in the bathroom. Jurors on Monday followed along with a printed transcript of the 911 conversation between Kastanis and dispatcher Shannon Gray while listening to a tape of the conversation as Gray sat on the witness stand.
West Jordan police officer Michael Nunnelley took the stand next and the jury heard two more tapes: one where Nunnelley interrogated Kastanis at his kitchen table after the killings, and the other while Nunnelley and West Jordan detective Robert Shober drove Kastanis to the Salt Lake County Jail, where he was held for investigation of the killings.
"I'm telling he truth. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth," Kastanis said after he got in Nunnelley's police car. "I'm telling the truth. Why don't no one, nobody want to believe me? I didn't kill my family."
"Sam, if you, if you want to talk and tell us what really happened, now would be about the time to do it," Shober said next.
"I'm telling the truth, guys. I've been telling the truth the whole time. I was outside," Kastanis responded.
Yengich said police were "never able to shake him from his understanding of the events of that day."