Man testifies against brother at death penalty trial — VIDEO
Robert Sitton's testimony could help determine whether his brother is sentenced to death.
Prosecutors say the siblings killed a 68-year-old man, viciously beating him with their fists and stomping on his back, leaving him to die inside his northwest valley home.
Robert Sitton, 38, quickly turned on his older brother and agreed to cooperate with authorities. He could be released from behind bars in as little as five years.
Will Sitton, 52, faces the death penalty.
On Monday, almost six years to the day after Brian Haskell was killed in his northwest valley bedroom, the younger Sitton took the witness stand and described the killing in detail.
He said he received a call from his brother on Oct. 29, 2009 saying they would move Will Sitton's girlfriend, Jacquie Schafer, 51, out of the condominium where she was living with Haskell.
"My first instinct was I thought I was going to have to fight," Robert Sitton told jurors.
When they arrived at the complex near Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, Schafer had already packed some of her things. Will Sitton told his brother to put on a pair of mechanic's gloves.
They stood by Haskell's bedroom door, and listened to Haskell and Schafer talk. The younger Sitton said he checked to see if the door was locked just before his brother pushed it open.
Haskell was sitting on his bed in a robe and boxers.
Robert Sitton said his brother "squats down in front of him, and says, 'You got something coming,' and gave him a right hook to the eye."
Schafer started rifling through Haskell's room, retrieving $80 from a jacket pocket.
She also punched him in the face, nose, mouth and eye, claiming he had groped her in front of her daughter, Sitton testified.
The brothers then took turns attacking Haskell, who attempted to fight back, using their fists and stomping on his back until he stopped breathing. The younger Sitton admitted to punching Haskell "five or six times" in the face and holding his foot on Haskell's back. The trio stole his black Cadillac, flat-screen television, a few coins, cellphone, cigarettes and a bottle of Jack Daniels, according to his testimony.
Prosecutor Jacqueline Bluth asked why he decided to testify against his brother.
"It was just time to man up," he said. "I manned up and spoke the truth." The crime, he added, was "eating at my conscience."
He said he wouldn't have been involved in the killing if it weren't for his brother.
"I feel that I shouldn't have been there," the younger Sitton said. "I feel that he put me in a position that's between a rock and a hard place."
Will Sitton is on trial alongside Schafer, also known as Jackie Napoli. Both face a series of charges, including first-degree murder, burglary, robbery and conspiracy.
Defense lawyers for the two both tried to paint the younger Sitton as a liar. Immediately after the killing, he wanted to leave the state and escape prosecution. He admitted on the stand Monday that he lied in his initial statements to police. He said he was "blackout drunk" during the killing but remembers the violence in vivid detail.
"You initially wanted to flee," Schafer's attorney, Josh Tomsheck, asked Sitton. "You wanted to avoid responsibility?"
"Yes," he replied.
"You took great steps, by your own admission, to cover your own tracks because you wanted to get away with what you had done."
Through further questioning, attorney Christopher Oram, who represents the elder sibling, tried to show that Robert Sitton acted alone in the killing.
"Do you see, everything you've described, sir, only took one person?" Oram said. "You see that, don't you?"
Haskell's body was found about two weeks after the beating.
A jury could decide by next week whether Will Sitton should be executed.
Prosecutors say they are seeking capital punishment for Sitton in part because of his violent past. In Clark County, he has three felony and gross misdemeanor convictions dating back to 1994, according to court records. In each of those cases, sexual assault charges were pleaded down to lesser counts. Schafer faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In exchange for his testimony, Robert Sitton agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years to life, plus a mandatory additional one to 20 years because of the victim's age.
He has been incarcerated at the Clark County Detention Center since Nov. 2009, and could be released by 2020 if given the minimum sentence. After the trial, he hopes to serve the rest of his prison time in Oklahoma, where other family members live.
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
