Friday, November 18, 2005

Lesbian Gets 15 Years for Killing Lover's Mom

(Link) The murder isn't as astonishing as the number of people who are glad the old bat is dead -- with the exception of the deceased's sisters, who claim she was nearly a saint.

3 comments:

LNewsEditor said...

JIC Post:
By RICHARD WEIR
New York Daily News

Valerie Stein was overcome with emotion yesterday after her longtime partner was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing Stein's mother, but it wasn't for the victim.

"I'm sorry, but how do you miss someone ... who wasn't loving to you and who wasn't supportive?" Stein, 38, said of her mother, Diana Stein.

Stein's tears were for her lover, Julie Flynn, 37, who was sent to prison for strangling Diana Stein, 67, on Feb. 7, first with her bare hands and then with a dish cloth.

The sentencing in Nassau County Court pitted Valerie Stein and her siblings - who claim their mother was bitter and abusive - against their aunts, who said Diana Stein sacrificed much for her kids, only to have them hate her.

At the center of the family tragedy was Valerie Stein's 18-year-old niece, Valerie Lynette, nicknamed "VJ" for Valerie Junior.

Now struggling with AIDS, she was born HIV-positive and her mother - Valerie Stein's sister, Hilary, now dead - abandoned her when she was 8 months old.

Valerie Stein and Flynn tried to legally adopt her but were rejected by social workers because of "the fact that we are gay," Valerie Stein said.

Diana Stein, who became the legal guardian for VJ, raised her granddaughter, at one point living with Flynn and her daughter for several years in East Meadow, until they had a falling out over disciplining VJ.

Flynn, who has the girl's name tattooed on her back, saw VJ for the first time in two years last February at a hospital and became enraged about her deteriorating condition.

Having lost two uncles to AIDS and in a state of depression, Flynn "snapped" and killed Diana Stein because she believed she was at fault for the girl's worsening health, Flynn's lawyer, Joel Weiss, told a Nassau County Court judge.

The young woman, now healthier after being given six months to live in February, credited her survival to the slaying.

"I believe that she saved my life," VJ said outside court. "If It wasn't for Julie, I would not be here today ... because [Diana Stein] wasn't giving me my medications, and she was a very horrible person."

But in court, Diana Stein's two sisters painted a different picture of the victim, detailing how their big sister took them to church as kids and sang and played piano at parties.

As a mother, she put her kids first, washing clothes by hand and darning socks, the sisters said.

"She wore a pair of shoes with holes, not wanting to spend the money on herself," Donna Silver said. "My wish for Julie Flynn is a lifetime sentence of despair, sadness, loneliness."

Another of Diana Stein's sisters, Dawn Lynster, said the victim's kids distorted the truth.

"My sister loved them and gave them everything she could," she said. "She was beaten down by life and then had the life strangled out of her."

Anonymous said...

I dont think that you should of wrote this

Unknown said...
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