Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.
Mona Nall was overwhelmed with relief.
Four others were dead on a grocery store floor, but her son -- who had survived a usually fatal form of meningitis and, later, a 30-day kidnapping ordeal -- had somehow managed to escape death again.
He had taken two shotgun blasts in his back and his arm, but after emergency surgery, doctors were sure he was going to pull through.
Nall was relieved, until the question came:
"Does your son have tattoos?"
Relief turned to agony in an instant. Her son Thomas Darnell, 40, didn't have any tattoos.
Zachary Emenegger, a 21-year-old stock boy with a sun tattoo on his left shin, was the lucky one -- the sole survivor among those shot during Zane Floyd's five minutes of madness.
According to prosecutors, after Floyd repeatedly raped an outcall service dancer, he walked into a Sahara Avenue grocery store on June 3, 1999, armed with a .12-gauge shotgun because he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.
Darnell was his first victim. He was followed by Chuck Leos, 41, Dennis "Troy" Sargent, 31, Emenegger and Lucy Tarantino, 60.
Jurors convicted Floyd, 24, Thursday on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and a burglary charge. They also convicted him on five sexual assault and kidnapping charges.
Nall spoke Monday on the first day of the penalty phase of Floyd's trial, during which jurors will decide whether Floyd will spend his life in prison or receive the death penalty.
One representative of each of the victims' families took the stand to talk about the loss of their loved ones. Two of the 25 people who escaped the rampage spoke about the massacre's effect on their lives.
Today began with the testimony of defense expert Dr. Norton Roitman. Roitman, a psychologist treated Floyd when Floyd was 13. The teenager was suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but the medication prescribed by other doctors was not working.
Roitman said he quickly realized that Floyd had "thinking" problems that could lead to permanent emotional problems. The teenager's brain "wasn't wired quite right," he said.
"It was like having a car with a good engine and good wheels, but a weak transmission when it had to go up hills," Roitman said.
Also expected to testify today were Floyd's parents and Floyd himself.
Deputy Public Defenders Curtis Brown and Doug Hedger hope to convince jurors to give him life in prison. Brown told the jurors Monday they've already given the victims justice, and now it's time to turn their attention elsewhere.
"I ask you to look at Zane Floyd now. We all see what we want to see. Some of you see hate, fear and anger, but you must look again," Brown said. "You must see better than that."
Brown said there are circumstances in Floyd's life, including mental impairment, that outweigh the facts prosecutors believe call for death.
"Mitigating circumstances are not about excuses, justification and forgiveness," Brown said. "It's about understanding -- understanding the complexities of what makes us who we are."
Jorge L. Abreu, a psychoanalyst and clinical social worker, testified Monday that Floyd's mother used marijuana, alcohol, LSD and cocaine while pregnant with him.
Floyd didn't begin to talk until he was 3 or 4 and suffered motor skill and concentration problems at an early age, Abreu said. Eventually, he was diagnosed with ADHD, but took his medication only sporadically.
His problems were exacerbated by constant moves as a child, and he twice had to repeat grades in school, Abreu said.
In addition, Floyd witnessed domestic violence and alcohol abuse through much of his life and eventually turned to drugs and alcohol himself, Abreu said. The alcohol ultimately ruined his chances of a career in the Marine Corps.
In the year and weeks before the shootings, Abreu said, Floyd was again rejected by the father who abandoned him before he was born, he was forced out of the Marines, he lost a couple of low-paying jobs and he was forced to move in with his parents.
Floyd also found out his best friend was gay and his cousin had been killed in a drunken-driving accident, Abreu said.
In an apparent reference to Floyd having attended eight schools in eight years, Nall said her son changed schools 16 times. Darnell's father was killed "by a person on alcohol and drugs and with a million excuses" when he was 14, she said.
Nall described her son as an "extremely unique" man who doggedly fought to get past the neurological problems caused by his bout with meningitis when he was 5 weeks old.
Her son loved to help people, from the veterans at the hospital he volunteered at to the elementary schoolchildren he tutored in math to the elderly woman he carried into the grocery store from her car, Nall said.
"He didn't have a lot to give, but he'd give you everything he had," Nall said, wiping her eyes. "We miss him."
Lani Tarantino said her mom, Lucy Tarantino, was a church-going lady who was fun and funny, opinionated, well-read, artistic and a hard worker.
When one of her sisters called to tell her what had happened, Lani Tarantino said, she wanted desperately to believe the woman on the other end of the phone wasn't her sister.
Tears flowed down many jurors' faces when Brenda Sargent described how her 7-year-old son, Cody, writes messages on helium balloons when he wants to talk to his daddy.
Troy Sargent started Cody's stock portfolio before he was born and taught him how to tie his shoes and brush his teeth, Sargent said. He also read to him every night from the World Class Book of Virtues.
Sargent said that in Cody's eyes and those of his half-siblings, his dad was the strongest man on Earth and invincible.
"When this happened, they couldn't believe it, because he knew karate," Sargent said.
She, too, works at a grocery store, and it terrifies Cody whenever she puts on her uniform and walks out the door, Sargent said.
"He has no faith that when people go out that door that they're going to come home," Sargent said.
Instead of asking when he will get his next "Pokemon" card, her son asks her where he will live when she dies, Sargent said.
LeAnna Parkey-Leos celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary to Chuck Leos four days before he died, she told jurors.
He was a happy, good-natured guy who asked her to marry him on Halloween while she was wearing a clown costume and who always wore a red and green cap with pompoms at work, Parkey-Leos said.
On the morning of the shootings, her husband was supposed to call her at 6:30 a.m. to wake her up. The phone rang at 6 a.m. with the news.
"I remember thinking I was gonna have to give him a hard time for waking me up early," Parkey-Leos said, sobbing.
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