On the evening of May 2, 2001, Mary Jean Pearl dropped her two daughters off, nine-year-old Mary Faith and six-year-old Liberty, to her estranged husband John Battaglia not knowing it would be the last time she would see them. A short time later while on the phone with Mary Faith she would hear the horrific screams and pleas from the nine-year-old, “No Daddy, please, please don’t do it” and then heard repeated gun shots as Battaglia repeatedly fired several .45 caliber bullets into each child, prosecutors alleged in a court document Tuesday.
Both girls suffered several gunshots to their heads, some at close range execution style, as they attempted to flee their father. After killing his two children Battaglia said “Merry [expletive] Christmas,” a court filing alleged.
Battaglia has filed repeated appeals in state and federal courts and a last-minute appeal to a federal court as well as the U. S. Supreme Court claiming he should not be executed because he is delusional and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Prosecutors alleged in the filing that while Battaglia had been diagnosed with the mental disorder before his trial, he doesn’t appear to be suffering from any symptoms while he has been in prison.
“In over 600 pages of medical and mental-health records, the only conditions Battaglia is documented to suffer from are prostate cancer, high blood pressure, and a few other minor ailments such as hemorrhoids and skin rashes. There is not a single notation in the records demonstrating that Battaglia is mentally ill, delusional, divorced from reality, on psychiatric medication, or otherwise does not comprehend his imminent execution,” prosecutors wrote.
In their court filing prosecutors cite several examples that Battaglia is not delusional or suffering from any mental illness including, his ability to draft coherent court filings, and a July 22, 2015 letter he wrote to Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk where he acknowledged he may have ‘defaulted’ on raising some postconviction claims.
However, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Battaglia is entitled to a court-appointed lawyer to pursue his claims saying “We decline to comment on the merits of his [mental health] claims, but he has presented some evidence of mental illness and delusions.”
As late as 2014 it didn’t appear that Battaglia was remorseful over the girls’ deaths. “Why would I worry about where they are now” Battaglia told a Dallas Morning News reporter in a February 21, 2014 prison interview.
Battaglia who appeared calm and spoke rationally during the interview, at times smiling added, “I don’t feel like I killed them.” He also referred to his ex-wife as a “piece of shit” and “suicidal” during the interview and claimed that his ex-wife “ruined his life.”
Yet while Battaglia claimed in the interview that he doesn’t think about where his daughters are at, shortly after killing them he went to a bar with a girlfriend and then to a tattoo parlor and had two roses inscribed on his left arm, one for each daughter.
Prosecutors wrote in a court filing Tuesday objecting to his request for a stay of execution that on the evening he killed Mary Faith and Liberty, Battaglia knew he was about to be arrested and spend close to a year in jail for violating the restraining order.
“Battaglia told the girls that he was not very hungry because he might be arrested that night and he would not see them again for a year or more,” prosecutors wrote.
Moments before Battaglia shot his daughters prosecutors say he had Mary Faith call his ex-wife and ask her “Mommy, why do you want Daddy to have to go to jail?”
Online court documents show that in the months prior to the murders Battaglia was charged several times with violating a protective order that barred him from having any contact with his ex-wife. Most of the charges were later dismissed, however no reason is given.
It took four police officers to arrest Battaglia and he was found with a loaded revolver. Police also recovered two rifles, three shotguns and a pistol, as well as the murder weapon from his apartment. As a result of the restraining order Battaglia was not allowed to possess firearms.
Testimony during his trial revealed that Battaglia had an extensive history of domestic violence during a previous marriage.
A daughter from that first marriage has said that Battaglia suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder and has an over-inflated ego, according to reporting from the Dallas Morning News.
Had the execution proceeded, Battaglia would have been the fifth inmate executed this year in Texas.
