BY KRISTEN DELGUZZI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gary Lee Hughbanks Jr. climbed onto the witness stand Wednesday and did the opposite of what is customary in such situations.
Instead of begging jurors to reject the death penalty and spare his life, the 31-year-old killer offered to sacrifice himself for the sake of his victims' families.
"If my life gives you comfort for taking your parents' life, so be it," Mr. Hughbanks told the children of William and Juanita Leeman, who were slain 11 years ago in their Springfield Township home. "If you find that my life has to be taken, then let it be taken. I'll give it to you. I'm sorry."
As he spoke, tears streamed down his cheeks. His mother, Angie Hughbanks, sat in the back of the courtroom, sobbing. Several jurors wiped away tears.
His comments came on the final day of testimony in the sentencing hearing of his capital murder trial -- a time when the defendant typically takes the stand, apologizes for his crime and asks to live.
From the minute he sat down on the witness stand, Mr. Hughbanks' statement was different from most.
"You did the right thing in finding me guilty," Mr. Hughbanks said as he looked at the jurors who convicted him last week of two counts of aggravated murder. He said he has been haunted by the crime almost since the day he stabbed and slashed the Leemans in May 1987. "It eats at me every day and every night when I go to sleep," he said. "It's a nightmare."
The murders went unsolved for a decade, although Mr. Hughbanks -- with his history of burglaries -- was questioned shortly after the killings. But there was not enough evidence to link him to the crime.
It wasn't until last year, when Mr. Hughbanks' brother tipped police, that an arrest was made. Mr. Hughbanks admitted to the crime almost as soon as he was questioned by police in Tucson, Ariz., where he was living.
After his arrest, he was examined by Nancy Schmidtgoessling, a court psychologist who testified Wednesday. She said Mr. Hughbanks told her that he had burglarized the Leeman house and was halfway out the bedroom window when Mr. Leeman dragged him back inside. Once in the house, Mr. Hughbanks grabbed a knife and began stabbing Mr. Leeman, Dr. Schmidtgoessling said. He then chased Mrs. Leeman through the house and slit her throat. She managed to crawl out the front door.
Though he has been treated for, among other things, delusions and depression, since he was 14, Mr. Hughbanks refused to blame his behavior on his mental illness. He also refused to plead for his life.
"I know that the law is right and I am wrong for what I have done," he said. "You have every right in the world to hate me and want to kill me yourself, and I don't blame you. If I were you, I'd want to do the same thing.
"I want you to hate me," he said to the Leemans. "Please do, because I would if it was my mother and father."
The Leemans glared at Mr. Hughbanks and did not appear to react to his testimony.
Jurors will begin deliberating a sentence this morning, after closing arguments in Judge Melba Marsh's Hamilton County courtroom.
