Jury to decide if defendant killed woman, shot man

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

Mary Amina was still mourning the death of her child when she was killed in a slaying prosecutors have labeled a random act of violence.

Amina's mother, Debra Steil, said her 20-year-old daughter was coming to grips with the death of her infant boy, who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2001, when she was killed herself.

"When the baby died, all I could do was comfort her," Steil said. "I didn't know what it was like to lose a child."

Now Steil is mourning the death of her own daughter.

Amina was shot in the face at her apartment on Dec. 1, 2002, after a confrontation with a man named Joseph Antonetti, 27. Amina's boyfriend, Danny Stewart, 30, was also shot during the incident but survived.

A Clark County jury is deciding whether to convict Antonetti on murder and attempted murder charges stemming from the shooting. Jurors began deliberating on Friday and were expected to continue deliberating this morning.

Antonetti could be sentenced to death if found guilty.

Defense attorneys maintained that Michael Bartoli, Antonetti's friend who was with him when the shooting occurred, was actually Amina's killer.

But Steil said she is sure the man on trial for her daughter's killing was the man who pulled the trigger.

"Antonetti is an animal," she said Friday. "He just took my daughter away from me."

During the trial last week before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, prosecutors alleged that Antonetti and Bartoli had gone to the couple's apartment in search of some of Bartoli's belongings when they got into a heated argument with the couple and Antonetti opened fire.

Bartoli testified that he had gone to the apartment trying to contact an ex-boyfriend of Amina's who had stolen some of his belongings.

The items in question included a sawed-off shotgun that Bartoli admitted had been used in a previous crime.

The couple tried to help Bartoli find the person who had his items, but when Bartoli came back later that night with Antonetti, a heated argument ensued.

"A stupid, stupid argument turns deadly," Deputy District Attorney Melissa De La Garza said Friday during her closing statement.

"(Antonetti) shoots Daniel Stewart right in the face, then he shoots Mary Amina right in the face. The ordinary man in this situation would've just walked away."

But defense attorney Christopher Oram told jurors that prosecutors had charged the wrong man. He said Bartoli was the gunman.

"Joseph Antonetti is not the triggerman," he said. "It was Bartoli. He's the one."

Bartoli testified that Antonetti became irritated with Amina and pulled out a gun from under his shirt and one from his pants and shot Amina and Stewart.

Stewart also identified Antonetti as the shooter.

Jurors also learned of both men's extensive criminal history.

Bartoli is housed at the Clark County Detention Center on charges stemming from a November 2002 home-invasion robbery. He is accused of holding a family of four at gunpoint.

Antonetti is charged with shooting his former roommate, Susanna Smith, nine times after she kicked him out of her home about a month prior to Amina's slaying. He faces a separate trial on those charges. Smith testified during the trial.

Antonetti is also charged in an attempted escape from the Clark County Detention Center in which he and five other inmates allegedly smuggled tools into the jail and used a hacksaw to cut through window bars.