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November
21, 2002
SALT LAKE
CITY (AP) -- James and Patricia Bottarini were a loving couple,
their nanny testified Thursday in federal court.
"Jim just glowed when he was around Patty," Alice
Von Matt
said, adding "his eyes just shined" when he spoke
to his wife and children. "You could see the love."
Von Matt tended the Bottarinis' two children from 1994 until
Patricia Bottarini's death in May 1997 in Zion National Park.
Bottarini is now on trial, accused of pushing his wife some
500 feet to her death to collect $1.25 million in life-insurance
money and family real-estate holdings.
Bottarini, 43, faces four counts of wire fraud, one of making
false statements to an officer and one of interstate domestic
violence, a charge that carries a penalty of up to life in
prison.
During Von Matt's time with the family she said she never
witnessed any problems in the Bottarini marriage. She said
she "never ever" saw Bottarini angry with his wife
and described him as a "quiet, reserved man" with
a soft smile.
"A very gentle person," she said.
Von Matt took the stand Thursday morning as the defense opened
its case. The prosecution rested its case Wednesday after
testimony from a National Park Service investigator, an FBI
agent and Patricia Bottarini's mother, Marjorie Howard-Jones.
Park ranger Pat Buccello testified about a trip she made to
Illinois with FBI agent Tim Childs to interview Bottarini
in
September 2000.
Defense attorney Ron Yengich asked both investigators about
Bottarini's willingness to help with the investigation. Bottarini
never declined to be interviewed or refused to answer questions
from investigators. He even provided Childs with a blank audiotape
so that Childs could record their conversation that September,
Yengich said.
That recorded conversation was played in court Wednesday.
In it, he describes seeing Patricia Bottarini face down on
her hands, knees and feet, "scrambling" on the rock
beneath her before slipping over the edge into the canyon.
He said that as it was happening his "legs were wobbly."
The prosecution's final witness, Howard-Jones, described her
daughter as a playful, determined person who also suffered
throughout her life from a fear of heights.
"It wasn't so much being high as it was a fear of falling,"
Howard-Jones said.
Unlike testimony from her daughters earlier in the week, she
did not characterize Bottarini as completely unemotional.
She said during her first conversation with Bottarini after
Patricia Bottarini's death he "seemed to be crying."
Bottarini is expected to take the stand Friday. Closing
arguments are scheduled for Monday.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights
Reserved.)
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