In court parlance, this morning’s latest postponement in a final decision on the penalty for convicted killer Scott Ansman was no more than a hiccup.
But for the family of the pregnant young woman he murdered almost two years ago, JoAnn Crystal Harris, there is a domino effect to the suffering they are enduring.
For 23 months, they have been chasing closure, which has been successfully elusive.
“I don’t understand why this drags on and on,” Gerald Bennett, the outspoken big brother of Ms. Harris, said this morning after a sentencing hearing was delayed for about 60 days.
“We never can get closure,” Ms. Harris’s brother said.
“These delays are such a waste of time. Justice has been carried out. It sure did not take the jury long to realize the animal, the monster this guy is. But full justice will take a little longer.”
The re-routing of both Mr. Ansman’s anticipated life-without-parole sentence and defense counsel Nan Whitfield’s bid for a new trial was caused by the prosecutor’s scheduling conflict.
Joe Markus, who won the case in late May, is involved in a trial at the 111 N. Hill St. courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, far from his regular base at the LAX courthouse.
Seven weeks ago, Mr. Ansman, a married career-long veteran of the National Guard, quickly was found guilty of battering his girlfriend to death at the Armory in Culver City, on Aug. 24, 2007.
