John Sansing was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of Trudy Calabrese
According to court documents John Sansing would order a food box from a local church with plans on robbing the delivery person. When Trudy Calabrese showed up with the food she was dragged into the home, sexually assaulted, robbed and murdered
John Sansing would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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ASPC-E Rynning D/Row
JOHN E. SANSING 146991
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
John Sansing Case
On February 24, 1998, the defendant John Sansing called the Living Springs Church and requested delivery of a food box for his family. He gave the church secretary his name and home address for the delivery. The defendant then telephoned his wife, Kara Sansing, at work several times, primarily to discuss how to obtain more crack cocaine for the two of them to smoke. During these calls, the defendant informed his wife that he had obtained some crack cocaine, that he had smoked some of it and was saving the rest for her. He also told her that he had called a church and arranged for delivery of some food. When Kara Sansing returned home at approximately 3:20 p.m., the couple smoked the remaining crack cocaine. The defendant, in the presence of his four children, informed Kara of his plan to rob the person who came from the church with the food boxes so he could purchase more crack cocaine.
¶ 3 Trudy Calabrese left the Living Springs Church in her truck at approximately 4:00 p.m. She arrived at the Sansing home shortly thereafter, parked in front of the house, and delivered two boxes of food. Ms. Calabrese chatted with Kara Sansing in the kitchen while the defendant signed a receipt for the delivery. Before Ms. Calabrese could leave, the defendant grabbed her from behind and threw her to the dining room floor. Aided by his wife and with his children watching, the defendant bound her wrists while she cried, “Lord, please help me” and, “I don’t want to die, but if this is the way you want me to come home, I am ready,” and repeatedly asked the defendant’s children to call the police. The defendant instructed his children to go into the living room and watch television.
¶ 42001554887;0062;;ES;AZCNART2S2.1P4;1000251; Using a club, the defendant struck Ms. Calabrese in the head several times with force sufficient to break the club into two pieces and render her temporarily unconscious. Leaving her on the dining room floor, the defendant took her keys and moved her truck to a business parking lot nearby. At some point before he returned, Ms. Calabrese regained consciousness. Upon his return, the defendant dragged her into his bedroom and sexually assaulted her. Kara Sansing, who witnessed the rape, testified that she heard the defendant and Ms. Calabrese speaking during the rape. The defendant then fatally stabbed her in the abdomen three times with a kitchen knife. During the attack, the defendant placed a sock in Ms. Calabrese’s mouth and secured two plastic bags over her head with additional cords and a necktie. According to the medical examiner, she lived several minutes after being stabbed. After the murder, the defendant left the bedroom and went to look out the dining room window to make certain no one had observed his actions.
¶ 5 The defendant John Sansing then removed Ms. Calabrese’s jewelry and left her body in his bedroom, covered with laundry, for several hours. The defendant engaged in two separate drug transactions shortly after the murder. First, he telephoned a drug dealer and arranged to trade the victim’s rings for crack cocaine. Later, he arranged to trade her necklace for more crack cocaine.
¶ 6 Later in the evening, Pastor Becker from Living Springs Church called the Sansing home looking for Ms. Calabrese and spoke to the defendant. The defendant, giving a false address, told the pastor that she had never arrived.
¶ 7 Late that night, the defendant John Sansing dragged Ms. Calabrese from the bedroom to the backyard and placed her body in a narrow space between the back of his shed and the fence. He covered her with a piece of old carpeting and other debris. At least three of the four Sansing children saw the body behind the shed. At some point, the defendant washed the bloody club and hid the clothes he had used to cover her body in a box in the bedroom.
¶ 8 The next day, searchers found Ms. Calabrese’s truck in a parking lot near the Sansing home. Inside, they found a piece of paper with the Sansings’ correct address. The police went to the Sansing home and discovered the victim’s body behind the shed. The defendant, who had driven to his sister’s house, admitted to her that he and his wife had killed Ms. Calabrese. Eventually, the defendant’s father telephoned the police and reported the defendant’s location. The defendant knew the police were coming and did not attempt to flee. When the police arrived, he submitted to custody peaceably and without resistance.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/az-supreme-court/1368978.html
