Mary Stiles says years of abuse at the pincer-like hands of her deformed husband left her no choice: She had to hire a hit man to kill the sideshow performer known as "The Lobster Boy."
"It's a terrible tragedy to have a person lose their life, especially by another," she explained Tuesday during a break in her murder-for-hire trial. "But do you take a chance of letting things go and maybe losing your whole family? He was capable of that.""You marry and take your vows for better or for worse," said Stiles, who still wears her wedding ring. "But how much does the worse have to be?"
In his opening statement, defense lawyer Arnold Levine portrayed Grady Stiles as an alcoholic brute who, despite stunted legs and arms that left him in a wheelchair, pummeled his wife and family with his two-fingered hands, head-butted them and repeatedly threatened to kill them.
He said Stiles was only defending herself in late 1992 when she paid a neighbor $1,500 to shoot the 55-year-old carnival freak in the head as he watched television in their Gibsonton mobile home.
"She honestly believed she had no other alternative but to partici
pate in this terrible act," Levine said. "She reasonably believed she and her family members were in imminent danger of bodily harm or death."
Assistant State Attorney Ron Hanes countered that there were other ways Mary Stiles could have stopped the abuse.
"Look at the alternatives she had. Look at the choices she made," Hanes said. "Reasonable? No. Murder? Yes."
Stiles, 56, could get life in prison if convicted. Her son, Harry Glenn Newman, 19, will be tried later on the same murder and conspiracy charges. He plans a similar defense.
The triggerman, Christopher Wyant, 18, was convicted of murder and conspiracy and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Levine said the entire family, including two children born with the lobster-claw syndrome, were held hostage by Stiles' threats.
"In spite of his deformities, he was a powerful, powerful man," Levine said. "When he was drunk and wanted to take it out on you - he did."
Levine noted Stiles was convicted of murder in New York in 1978 for shooting one of his daughter's boyfriends.