Woman sent to jail to await judge’s sentencing decision

Bill Gang

Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

A Henderson mother is going to prison for four months before being sentenced for trying to kill her 12-year-old son along with herself.

The prison stay ordered Wednesday by District Judge Lee Gates for Veronica Venditti is to provide a better picture of the woman that the judge said had "real emotional, mental problems."

Gates said his primary concern is ensuring that the boy, who is living with his father, will be kept safely away from the woman.

At her October trial, Venditti told the jury that she "wanted to take (her son) to a better place" and prevent him from suffering the kinds of physical and sexual abuse she said she endured most of her life.

Defense attorney Peter Flangas argued Wednesday that since the boy is living away from those who had abused his mother, there would be no reason for her to try killing him again.

He contended that the prison stay would only provide short-term "warehousing" for the woman he said should be on probation so she can receive needed counseling.

Venditti fidgeted throughout the sentencing hearing during which she read a prepared statement vowing to return to Gates' courtroom "a healthier person."

Venditti was convicted of giving her son a handful of drugs she called "vitamins" and taking him to a remote spot near Lake Mead where she ran a hose from the exhaust pipe of their car into a rear window.

She and her sleeping son sat inside as the interior of the Buick filled with noxious fumes.

But the plan fell apart when the boy awoke, gasping for air, and managed to open the car's door and stagger into fresh air. He fell back, only to be caught by a National Park Service ranger who had just arrived to investigate the car parked on an unauthorized access road.

The jury convicted Venditti of attempted murder and child endangerment. She faces more than 20 years in prison.

Although she told the jury she was taking her son to a better place, she would not admit on the witness stand that she knew he would die in that journey on June 24.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said during closing arguments that the youngster "is going to have to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that his mother tried to kill him."

Daskas said the pills given by Venditti to the boy actually were Xanex tablets that put him to sleep on their drive to Lake Mead.