tuesday, december 2, 2003
martin trial
the university daily kansan
5A
Photo contributed by Tim Rogers
Jeanette Stauffer testified as police looked on during the last day of hearings against three Costa Ricans accused of killing Stauffer's daughter, Shannon Martin. Security was tightened at the courthouse after several witnesses received death threats. Pictured from left to right: Peter Majerle, translator; Stauffer; Juan Carlos Arce, Stauffer's attorney; Erick Martinez, public prosecutor and unidentified Costa Rican police officers.
MARTIN: Mother fights for longer prison sentences, federal action
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
eaen, stauffer will press on. She will appeal for a longer prison sentence and ask the U.S. Congress to establish guidelines for study-abroad programs. She wants the FBI to be required to get involved immediately when a U.S. citizen is killed abroad. The issues are all topics she may touch on during a news conference she is holding today at Washburn University in Topeka.
She'll also keep soliciting funds for the Shannon Lucile Martin English Center in Golfito, a place to learn English through computer programs and tutoring to boost the town's tourism.
Stauffer has been the most public vocal member of the family. She keeps a list of many of the media outlets that have interviewed her. It includes more than 50 television, newspaper and radio news reporters from across the United States and in Costa Rica. She can rattle off the first names of reporters from Wichita, Washington, D.C., New York and Lawrence by memory.
"It if weren't for the media putting pressure on the government officials here and in Costa Rica, this would have been an easy case to drop," she said from her Topeka home, "Costa Rica doesn't want tourists to know about this. Universities don't want students to know, either."
Family bonds
Other members of the family have kept their grieving more private.
Staci, 29, and Sheri, 24, Shannon's two sisters, are KU graduate students studying journalism and English as a second language, respectively.
Both women have fond memories of their sister: singing together in the Shawnee Heights High School choir, sharing an old Buick, swing dancing at The Bottleneck, eating at the Lawrence Pizza Company on Kasold Drive.
After their sister's death, dealing with friends and boyfriends was awkward. They said people had a hard time knowing when and how to discuss Shannon.
"It's like we're expected to keep up this certain front," Sheri said. "But we're doing it for other people's sanity. They don't want to deal with a sad person, so you almost feel like you have to comfort them, make them feel better so they know everything is OK."
While juggling school, jobs, friends and grieving of their own, it was jarring to see their mother and sister on the front page of the newspaper or mentioned on the mail
"My mom ke.ps making private things public," she said, recalling when several reporters showed up when the family gathered to plant a garden for Shannon last spring. "It makes a show of it. I know it's part of her grieving process, but it gets to the point where sometimes it affects mine."
Meanwhile, their father and Stauffer ex-husband, Ross Martin, rarely talks about Shannon's death, Staci said. He was always more introverted than their
mother, she said, but Ross has shunned working on the investigation publicly or privately. He declined interviews for this story.
"Our parents are kind of at the extremes of how they are dealing with this," Staci said.
"To see what happened and to see the toll that it's taken on her family, it is very difficult," said Peter Majerle, who translated for Stauffer and her husband, Brad Stauffer, through much of the trial and investigation.
Differing opinions
The Minneapolis, Minn., native was just part of Stauffer's team of interpreters and investigators who made numerous trips to Golfito to find witnesses and persuade them to talk. During Stauffer's most-recent trip, she paid for two translators, a personal taxi driver, KBI investigator Larry Thomas and four night security guards to be there.
Jesse Ybarra was also on that team. The federal and state court interpreter from Topeka has been helping Stauffer sift through hundreds of Spanish-language court documents for the last six months. He also assisted the KBI investigation and questioning.
He calls Stauffer a tower of strength.
"If it wasn't for her, those people would have walked," he said of Stauffer's role in the conviction.
Not everyone thinks so kindly of Stauffer's efforts.
"The mother has made a lot of problems around here," said John Tyner, owner of a small bar
in the center of Golfito called Latitude 8. "She's very aggressive and has a bad reputation as being pushy. She's desperate."
Tyner is one of several dozen American expatriates living in Golfito who has been following the case closely. Originally from Minnesota, he now part-owns a watermelon farm and a brothel in a city nearby, in addition to running the bar.
Oscar Quiros, who was hired to direct the KU program Martin attended in Golfifo, said he thought Stauffer had pushed the limits when holding people accountable for Martin's death. He resented being accused of not doing enough to prevent the murder, he said during an interview in his Golfifo home.
"She was not my student," he said, noting Martin wasn't participating in the program when she died. "She wasn't my responsibility."
Regardless of how others feel about her actions, Stauffer pledges she will keep working on projects at home and abroad in her daughter's name.
It's simple, in Stauffer's mind. Globalism, ecology and kindness were all causes Martin cared deeply about.
But why carry the torch for something that has caused her so much pain?
"These were ideals that were important to Shannon," Stauffer said. "She can't do it now, but I can."
—Edited by Ehren Meditz
May 10,2001—Shannon Martin, 23-year-old senior, arrives in Golfito for a second time. She finished finals early to spend a week in Golfito collecting fern specimens.
Follow the timeline:
Long road to trial in Martin death
May 13,2001, 1 a.m. — Martin is attacked and stabbed 14 times on an airport access road 50 meters from her host family's home.
May 13, 2001, 6:30 a.m. — Martin's family learns of her death, via a phone call from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.
May 16, 2001 — The University sends Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, then interim director of study abroad, to escort the body home. Dave Schmitz, Martin's boyfriend, accompanied her.
June 2001 — The University sends Charles Stansifer, KU professor and expert on Costa Rica, to Golifto to investigate safety concerns. He declares the city safe.
July 2001 — The University sends Gronbeck-Tedesco, then interim director of study abroad, and Amy Timkar, KU program coordinator, to conduct site visits in San Jose, the country's capital, and Golfito.
July 2, 2001 — Hair samples taken from Martin's hands at the crime scene were submitted to an FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C.
July 13, 2001—Jeanette Stauffer, Martin's mother, meets with Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez and ambassador Jaime Daremblum.
July 27, 2001 — The University announces it will continue the study abroad program in Goffito.
Aug. 29, 2001 — Stauffer travels to San José for the first time since her daughter's death. She meets with the Judicial Investigating Police, Costa Rica's version of the FBI.
Nov. 21, 2001 — Kattia Cruz Murillo, now 29, is arrested after investigators link her to the murder through a pawned earring.
through approved curriculum
May 13, 2002 — On the first anniversary of Martin's death, the University announces its plans to create a $1,000 scholarship to be awarded annually for a female student accepted into the Institute of Tropical Studies program.
July 22, 2002 — Rafael "Coco" Zumbado Quesada, now 52, and Luis Alberto "caballo" Castro Carillo, now 32, are arrested.
July 2002 — KU study-abroad officials announce the termination of the Institute of Tropical Studies in Golfoft. University officials cite shifts in the environment in Golfoft because of the upcoming trial as the reason. Oscar Quiros, director of the
Golfito program, denied any knowledge of harassment or possible danger to students.
Nov. 29, 2002 — After four months in custody, Zumbado and Castro are released because of a lack of evidence.
March 14, 2003 — OIJ officials perform DNA tests on the skin found under Martin's fingernails at Stauffer's urging.
March 16, 2003 — Stauffer appears on Costa Rican television stations in a plea for a key witness who disappeared to come forward.
March 2003 — Prosecutor Erick Martinez files charges against the three suspects, saying that Martin was killed during a robbery.
April 29, 2003 - A closed preliminary hearing is held in Golfito's courthouse, the Tribunal of Justice.
May 16, 2003 — The University awards the first Shannon Lucile Martin Memorial Scholarship. The recipient planned to apply the scholarship toward her study of Portuguese and anthropology at the University of Costa Rica in San José.
June 12, 2003 — A Costa Rican judge delayed the trial after granting Martin's family the right to formal legal representation of its own. Stauffer hired Costa Rican prosecutor Juan Carlos Arce to conduct his own investigation and file new murder charges on her behalf.
September 2003 — Staufer's attorney asks to push back the trial date so that more evidence can be tested.
Oct. 27, 2003 — The trial is delayed because judges deem that an attorney hired to defend Zumbado has a conflict of interest because he had also been hired by Cruz at one time.
Oct. 31,2003—The trial begins. Stauffer testifies about her daughter among dozens of other witnesses.
Nov. 14, 2003 — Security at the courthouse is doubled after two anonymous telephone death threats are called in.
Nov. 24, 2003—Attorneys give closing statements. The three-judge tribunal declares Zumbado and Cruz guilty of murder and sentence both to 15 years in prison. Castro was acquitted but remains in custody for the murder of a local drug dealer over an alleged territory dispute.
Sources: The University Daily Kansas, the Lawrence Journal-World, The Topeka Capital-Journal, The Tico Times and the Associated Press. Compiled by Lindsay Hanson and Katie Nelson
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