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Show World &Nation Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 Page 8 TV was catalyst in murder often-year-old RISING SUN, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana teenager who pleaded guilty to murder confided that he wanted to be just like the TV serial killer Dexter a few weeks before he strangled his 10-yearold brother, his ex-girlfriend testified Tuesday. Fifteen-year-old Alexis Murafski told a judge about her conversation with Andrew Conley shortly after the 18-year-old defendant apologized for the crime during his sentencing hearing. "I am very sorry for murdering my little brother and I will never forget how much he meant to me and so many other people," Conley said, reading a handwritten statement from his seat at the defense table. "I still have no idea why this happened, but I really wish I did." Defense attorneys objected to prosecutors asking Murafski about Conley's interest in the Showtime series "Dexter," but Ohio Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey allowed the testimony since Conley had told police officers he felt like the fictional character after killing his brother. Murafski testified that Conley talked about the Dexter character while they were walking in the small Ohio River town of Rising Sun near where Conner Conley's body was later found. Conley told police he held his brother in a choke hold while wrestling at their rural home and dragged him into the kitchen after he passed out, where he strangled him for 20 minutes. He then drove to his girlfriend's home and gave her a promise ring with Conner's body in the trunk of his car. During closing arguments on the fifth day of Conley's sentencing hearing, Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard, quoting Conley's own words to police, argued the teen was a "monster" who should "rot in jail for the rest of his A psychologist called by the prosecution testified Tuesday life." that he believed Conley showed signs of being a psychopath, He said Conner Conley's age when he died outweighed whatthough under defense questioning he acknowledged that he ever factors the defense might cite to try to get a lesser sentence. hadn't interviewed the teenager. "His life was ended way too short," Dr. James Daum said violent fantasies of disNegangard said of Conner, who witnesses said membering and burning people that Conley idolized his older brother. said he had had since eighth grade, his lack of He also disputed defense claims that Conley emotion and the killing itself could be considwas seriously mentally ill and heard voices. ered psychopathic characteristics. "The voices didn't tell him to do it, he just Two mental health experts testified Monday decided to do it," Negangard said. that Conley told them he felt as if he were Defense attorney Gary Sorge, however, pointwatching Conner's killing while it occurred, a ed out that three different psychological experts condition they said is known as dissociation who interviewed Conley all said he was seriously and is brought on by stress. mentally ill, a factor that can be weighed toward Conley was calm as he read his statement, leniency under Indiana law. which took several minutes. He said he goes Sorge also said Conley had cooperated with to sleep every night wishing he could change police, turning himself in the day after the what happened. crime and leading them to key evidence. He also "I will accept wholeheartedly the punishment said Conley clearly showed remorse, though I am given and deserve," he said. Negangard argued that was self-serving. Humphrey will rule Oct. 15 on whether Sorge argued that Conley had accepted Conley should receive a life sentence or be senresponsibility for killing his brother and refused tenced to 45 to 65 years in prison. Negangard to blame a troubled home life that included argued that even the 65-year sentence was too an episode in which a previous stepfather had short, since he could be released in about 30 paraded through the house with a gun in his years with credit for time served and education ANDREW CONLEY waits to go while in prison. mouth, or an alleged molesting. into a courtroom. AP photo "He took it all on himself," Sorge said. "He described himself as a monster." Chilean rescuers are growing optimistic SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chilean rescuers are growing increasingly optimistic about pulling the 33 trapped miners out far sooner than originally estimated, and with drilling quickly advancing on three narrow escape chutes, they raced Tuesday to decide on a design for the capsule that will lift the men to safety. President Sebastian Pinera has staked his presidency on being able to show the world that his government has safely rescued the miners ahead of schedule. He promised the men after they were found to be alive Aug. 22 that they would be home by Christmas — a timeframe mining experts called far too conservative — and then put hundreds of rescuers to work on three simultaneous drilling operations to reach them more quickly. The engineer in charge of the rescue effort, Andre Sougarret, said Tuesday that "it's still premature to talk about shorter timeframes. We're sticking with the first days of November as the final date of the rescue." But the rescue team's own numbers suggest faster progress. The biggest drill, labeled "Plan C," is capable of much faster speed, and the deeper it gets, the faster engineers plan to drill. Barring unforeseen complications, it could break through to the miners at a point nearly 2,000 feet (597 meters) underground in the second week of October. Sougarret has said it would then take 8 days to insert an iron sleeve in the 28-inch-wide (71-centimeter-wide) chute to prevent rock falls while miners are being pulled out. There's also the matter of an Oct. 15-22 European trip scheduled by Pinera, who promised the miners in a video chat Sunday that he would be there to hug them as they emerged. While his ministers have struggled to manage expectations, Pinera could hardly contain himself when asked by reporters at the mine to commit to a date, saying with his usual broad smile that "it will be sooner than what you expect." In another indication of the rescue effort's progress, Sougarret said the rescue capsule — named Phoenix for the mythical bird that burns to ashes, only to rise again and live for hundreds of years — has to be ready within 10 to 12 days after they decide on a final design this week. With that in mind, engineers were viewing prototypes of the capsules Tuesday at ASMAR, the Chilean navy's shipbuilding operation in Talcahuano, where three of the capsules will be built to provide backups in case anything goes wrong. The specifications are elaborate: The capsules must come equipped with tanks to provide three hours of oxygen, wheels mounted on shock absorbers to maintain contact with the pipe's walls, an internal harness to prevent injury to the miners, and a wireless communication system so the men can remain in touch with people inside and outside the mine during the 15- to 20-minute journey to the surface. It also must fit through a chute just 23 inches (58.4 centimeters) in diameter, while also pro- viding just enough room to squeeze inside for and drenched the rescue cage as they were the largest man trapped below, a miner whose pulled up. shoulders measure 19 inches (48 centimeters) "Who cares about the water — just get us the across. heck out of there! It was pouring like buckets, "That's the critical dimension for the cage's but who cares?" Foy recalled. "They could have design," Sougarret said in a briefing Tuesday at pulled me up on a rope for all I cared." the San Jose mine. ASMAR plans a cylinder with walls of steel 0.16 inch (4 millimeters) thick, with an escape hatch and interior harness system designed to enable the occupant to lower himself back down into the mine should the capsule get stuck. "Everything is advancing OK, the technical team ... is already at ASMAR evaluating the rescue capsule design. It has been baptized Phoenix. This week we will decide" its final characteristics, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said by Twitter on Tuesday. The capsule designers have received some guidance from U.S. engineers involved in Pennsylvania's 2002 Quecreek coal mine disaster, said Tom Foy, one of nine men who were pulled to safety in an operation that has many similarities to the effort in Chile. Foy, now 61, was stuck for three days about 270 feet underground, in a coal seam just four feet high, with groundwater rising and oxygen disappearing. By the time rescuers broke through with an air pipe and heard them bang nine times to signal their survival, Foy figures they had just an hour of air left. The Quecreek rescuers didn't bother installA DRILL IS USED in the resuce operation of ing a metal sleeve inside their escape chute. Groundwater gushed through walls of the hole 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine. AP photo W .4 P • • • • o• t .1111 START LEADING OTHERS 47.1rard. sr' •11 For Your Princess v. 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