The man convicted of killing 7-year-old Megan Kanka was sexually abused by his father as a child for years, a defense witness testified in a hearing to determine whether he should be executed.
Jesse Timmendequas, 36, was raised in an impoverished household full of incest and drunkenness, social worker Carol Krych told the jury.Defense testimony resumed Wednesday in the penalty phase, in which the same jury that convicted Timmendequas will decide to sentence him to die by injection or life in prison without parole. The prosecution finished Tuesday.
The defense is trying to convince the jury that the sexual abuse turned Timmendequas into a child molester, unable to control his lust for young girls.
Krych, who compiled a detailed history of Timmendequas' family, said he was 6 or 7 when the abuse began. She showed videotaped testimony of his younger brother Paul, recounting how their father abused them.
"He would hold us by the neck and he would do what he was doing to both of us," Paul said. "He would start when there was nobody else around."
Paul said his abuse ended after about two years, but it continued for Jesse.
"To be honest, I would hear Jesse screaming . . . then you knew what was happening," Paul testified.
After the abuse began, Jesse went from a sociable and lovable child to an isolated misfit who played alone in school, Krych said. He was classified borderline mentally retarded and was placed in a special education class, she said.
His mother, Doris Unangst, bore 10 children by seven men, Krych said. Most of the children were given away or taken away, and those who weren't were neglected and abused, she said.
The father, now known as Charles Howard, changed his name several times as he moved across country fleeing authorities, Krych said. He took the name Timmendequas from a tombstone in an Indian cemetery, she said.
Jesse Timmendequas showed no emotion as his troubled childhood was discussed. He occasionally glanced at a large television screen where his boyhood photographs and psychiatric and school records were displayed.
Timmendequas was convicted last month of raping and strangling Megan, who lived across the street from him.
Megan's murder in 1994 led to laws across the country requiring that communities be notified when convicted sex offenders move in.
At the start of the hearing Monday, prosecutor Lewis Korngut reminded the jury how Timmendequas, a twice-convicted child molester, watched Megan for weeks before luring her to his house to see a puppy.