Dr. Yazeed Essa gave wife pills laced with Cyanide now on trial/ Case has gone to the jury/ ESSA FOUND GUILTY and sentenced to life in prison with possible parole after 20 years

Dr. Essa's lovely wife Rose called her friend as she died and told her friend that her husband insisted she take a calcium pill and it made her sick. She got in the car, drove and then collapsed and died while driving. It was a mere fender bender, nothing more, but of course it was thought to have been the unexplained cause of her death. Then when the friend reported the phone call, an autopsy was performed and they discovered that the calcium pills he gave her had 5 times the amount of Cyanide necessary to kill anybody, and that that had been the cause of her death. He fled the country, had been returned, and is now standing trial. The defense is trying to say it was one of his last, out of many, mistresses who did the crime.

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This doctor's brother tells the court how the doctor bragged repeatedly about killing his wife to everybody who would listen. They took out a million-dollar life insurance policy on a terminally ill cousin and this doctor posed as his cousin for the physical exam to buy the policy. They were going to split the money. When asked if this doctor ever feared the law, he simply replied that he comes from a place where the law is who you know. He spent his time in the other country drinking and consorting with prostitutes.

One can only wonder what kind of care this doctor had been providing to his patients when human life seems so unimportant to him.

In testimony yesterday, it has been said that he planned to blame one of his mistresses for the murder in the case that it was found out to be a murder. It is the strategy his attorneys are now using. Assuming the jury to be intelligent people, it will never work. This is one man that should get the DP, nothing redeeming about him whatsoever. I feel for his children.

- Taking the witness stand Thursday in Dr. Yazeed Essa's murder trial, his late wife Rosemarie's OB-GYN testified that she did not prescribe the calcium supplement pills that Rosemarie was taking when she died.

The doctor testified that she prescribed pre-natal vitamins and supplements to Rosemarie but, in her medical opinion, she would not have prescribed calcium supplements to go along with the pre-natals.

Rosemarie, 38, died Feb. 24, 2005, following a minor accident in her SUV on Wilson Mills Road in Highland Heights. She was taking calcium supplements at the urging of her husband, Dr. Yazeed Essa.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner determined that Rosemarie died of cyanide poisoning.

The prosecution is alleging that Yazeed Essa slipped cyanide into her calcium supplements to free himself of his marriage.

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The brother who testified earlier that an Ohio doctor denied poisoning his wife with cyanide returned to the witness stand to change his testimony, telling jurors the defendant admitted to the killing.
Firas Essa said Monday in Cleveland that his brother, Yazeed Essa, told him he’d replaced the calcium in his wife’s supplements with cyanide.
Firas Essa said he changed his testimony to avoid the risk of perjury and obstruction charges and potential prison time. He said his brother’s admission came in a 2006 conversation the two had at a Cyprus jail, where Yazeed Essa was detained after fleeing the U.S. following his wife’s death.
Authorities say Rosemarie Essa, 38, crashed her vehicle into oncoming traffic after taking a cyanide-laced calcium capsule provided by her husband on Feb. 24, 2005. Essa, 41, a Detroit native, was an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center.
Firas Essa said he didn’t ask his brother why he killed the woman, because “the reason wouldn’t bring back Rosie.”
He said he swore at his brother, “because he took Rosie’s life, and I loved her. He ruined his whole family.”
Yazeed Essa has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. His brother says he has recently been urging the defendant to plead guilty. “I asked him to plea rather than make me come do this,” Essa said. “He told me I had to do what I had to do.”
Family members of the woman gasped and wept during the testimony. Yazeed Essa shook his head and gripped the armrests of his chair.
Defense attorney Mark Marein noted that Firas Essa had told no one of the confession until he changed his testimony. He accused prosecutors of threatening him with potential charges and suggested he was only trying to save himself from prison.
Firas Essa testified for the prosecution under terms of a plea deal. He and a sister were fined and placed on probation for helping their brother when he fled the country.
Two weeks ago, Firas Essa testified over two days to the same Cuyahoga County jury, saying the doctor fled because he feared his adultery could make him appear guilty, and that the two rarely discussed what might have caused Rosemarie Essa’s death.
During that testimony, Assistant County Prosecutor Steven Dever played a conversation between the two men, recorded at the jail, in which they discuss paying someone to keep quiet.
Firas Essa said the conversation was a decoy meant to confuse law enforcement officers, and later said it was over a 10-year-old dispute his brother had with a girlfriend.
Judge Deena Calabrese had stopped the testimony to tell Essa he had a right to not incriminate himself and to allow him to consult with his attorney.
Marein said the jailhouse recording was irrelevant to the criminal trial, and suggested it was about a civil suit related to a TV satellite dish company they owned.

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A doctor charged in the cyanide death of his wife acted strangely and displayed a bottle of calciumcapsules after his wife was poisoned and died in a car crash, the victim's sister testified Tuesday.
Deanna DiPuccio, sniffling and wiping tears with a tissue, testified at the murder trial of her brother-in-law, Dr. Yazeed Essa, who is accused of killing his wife, Rosemarie, by lacing the capsules with cyanide.
DiPuccio, recounting her statement made to police, said Essa held up the bottle and said, "This is what Rosie took."
The comment in front of family members felt weird, DiPuccio testified. "That statement gave me chills," she said.
Under cross-examination, the defense tried to highlight discrepancies involving the bottle's description. The defense has suggested a mistress of the doctor may be the killer.
Defense attorney Mark Marein displayed the bottle and the capsules for the jury and asked DiPuccio if police had shown her the bottle during their investigation.
"Not that I can recall," she responded.
Authorities say the 38-year-old victim crashed her vehicle into oncoming traffic after taking a cyanide-laced calcium capsule provided by her husband on Feb. 24, 2005. Essa, 41, a Detroit native, was an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center.
DiPuccio said Essa, who leaned forward and took notes during her testimony, avoided his in-laws after his wife's death and showed up 15 to 20 minutes late for her funeral.
Asked by the prosecutor how Rosemarie might have responded if she knew he had multiple mistresses, DiPuccio said, "She would not have stayed."
The prosecution has portrayed the killing as Essa's way of getting out of a marriage without a messy and costly divorce.
"Did she have a good life?" Marein asked.
"Yes," DiPuccio responded.
The defendant's brother, who testified earlier that Essa denied poisoning his wife, returned to the witness stand Monday to change his testimony, telling jurors the defendant admitted to the killing.
Firas Essa said he changed his testimony to avoid the risk of perjury and obstruction charges and potential prison time. He said his brother's admission came in a 2006 conversation the two had at a Cyprus jail, where Yazeed Essa was detained after fleeing the U.S. following his wife's death.

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Rosemarie Essa had been dead for only a few hours. But while mourners gathered at the family's Gates Mills home, her husband, Yazeed, entertained his buddies in his billiards room -- tossing back shots and cracking crude jokes, according to testimony in his aggravated murder trial.
One joke in particular fell flat on the crowd, a former employee of an Essa family business told jurors Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
Essa remarked that at least he wouldn't have to sneak women into the house anymore, Abraham Hamed recalled.
"That one joke stood out," he said. "It bothered me. It was inappropriate. No one laughed."
Prosecutors believe Essa killed his wife to free himself of a marriage that stood in the way of his playboy lifestyle. Essa's attorneys do not dispute that their client was a philanderer, who casually maintained multiple sexual relationships behind his wife's back. They even have questioned witnesses about his love life to buttress their theory that Essa easily managed to keep his wife happy while juggling his extramarital affairs.
Coverage of the Yazeed Essa trial
But Hamed, who at the time worked as the warehouse manager at the TV satellite business Essa co-owned with his brother, told jurors that Essa did not seem content in his marriage.
Hamed said it was common knowledge at the workplace that Essa had many girlfriends. And in the years before Rosemarie Essa's death, Yazeed Essa made comments about wanting to leave his wife so he could be free to sleep with whomever he pleased.

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OMG. I am truly speechless.

"He was telling me that I was the love of his life and that he was going to leave her," said Michelle Madeline Stephens. The Akron nurse spent much of the day explaining her relationship with murder suspect Dr. Yazeed Essa at the Justice Center in Cleveland.

The mistress told the jury that her lover, Dr. Essa, had a nickname for his wife, Rosemarie, 36.

"He called her 'Amana,' like the refrigerator, because he said she was so cold."

Essa, 41, is accused of lacing Rosemarie's calcium supplement pills with cyanide, resulting in her death on Feb. 24, 2005.

The love affair began with a tryst five months before the murder of Rosemarie Essa. The nurse detailed the ongoing amorous pursuit by the doctor.

"Many times I tried to step away because I knew it was wrong, " recalled Michelle. "And he would give me a day, then he would call and text and shmooze, and then there was those feelings again."

She described the flowers, love notes, Wednesday night meetings, and a trip to New York City.

Two months before the death of Rosemarie Essa, her husband wrote to Madeline Stephens, saying, "I will forever love only you. You are the woman I was always meant to be with. I never believed in a soul mate until now."

On the day that Rosemarie was murdered, the nurse told the that jury that Essa called from the hospital.

"He called my cell phone and he was incomprehensibly screaming and yelling," she said. "I couldn't understand him. I tried to call him back. He called me back and he was screaming 'Rosie's dead.'"

I said, "I don't believe you."

Michelle kept a 44-page journal about her relationship with Essa. She looked at her notes and said, "This was written after Rosie died and I documented that he said 'you will be the only mommy that the children will ever remember.'"

She continued, "He told me that we could officially start dating in September and October, and her (Rosie's) family would be so happy for him and they would love me like a daughter."

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Steve Dever asked if Doctor Essa ever proposed marriage to Michelle. She said he sent me a "proposal" by email that was delivered by another person because he was on the run in Lebanon.

"What are your feelings for him now?" asked Dever.

Michelle responded, "Fear, hatred and disgust."

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The second woman in an Ohio love triangle says her affair with a doctor charged in his wife's cyanide death was casual, not an infatuation.
The testimony in Cleveland by Margarita Montanez (MAHN'-tuh-nehz) came Friday as the defense tried to buttress its theory that she wanted to marry Yazeed Essa (EE'-suh) and might be his wife's killer.
Under cross-examination by Essa's attorney, Montanez said her on-again, off-again affair with Essa was casual, not an emotional relationship that might be a motive for murder.
Essa is accused of poisoning his wife in 2005. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder in the death of Rosemarie Essa.
Asked by the prosecutor if she had anything to do with the death, Montanez answered: "Absolutely not."

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Throughout most of his aggravated murder trial, Yazeed Essa has worn his wedding ring - the traditional symbol of enduring love and commitment in marriage.
But Monday, a Highland Heights detective implied in his testimony in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court that the gold wedding band on Essa's ring finger is a phony.
Essa left his real wedding band behind when he fled the country after his wife's death, Detective Dennis Matejcic said. Essa is accused of poisoning his wife, Rosemarie, with cyanide in 2005.
And as Matejcic held up for jurors a close-up photograph of the newlyweds' hands, showing off their rings, Assistant County Prosecutor Steven Dever held up what he believes was Essa's authentic wedding band and dropped it on the witness stand with a tinny clink.
After more than 50 witnesses and introducing 240 pieces of evidence, the state rested its case Monday against the former Gates Mills doctor accused of lacing his wife's calcium supplements with cyanide then fleeing the country for refuge in the Middle East. Essa's attorneys have indicated that they plan to call several witnesses in their client's defense this week.
Prosecutors believe Essa, 41, killed his wife to free himself of a marriage that stood in the way of his playboy lifestyle and his love affair with a nurse at Akron General Hospital, where he worked as an emergency room physician.
Essa concedes that he encouraged his wife to take the calcium supplement as she headed out the door on her way to catch a matinee movie with her sister on Feb. 24, 2005.
But he denies any knowledge that the pills were contaminated. And he contends that he fled the country because he knew he was a suspect, and he did not believe he would get a fair trial.
Matejcic provided jurors with never-before heard details of his investigation, which began in March 2005, the day police learned Essa had fled.
Matejcic mapped the fastest route from the Essas' Gates Mills home to the movie theater in Richmond Heights and discovered that Rosemarie Essa, who was in a rush to catch the matinee, most likely would have taken Interstate-271 north to get there.
Prosecutors believe Yazeed Essa hoped his wife would have lost consciousness while traveling on the freeway and suffered severe trauma in a high-speed crash, camouflaging his crime.
Instead, Rosemarie Essa took a longer route down Wilson Mills Road, faded in and out of consciousness and clipped an oncoming vehicle going slower than 30 mph. She died within the hour at Hillcrest Hospital having suffered no injuries in the crash.
Matejcic also implied in his testimony that Yazeed Essa went out of his way to buy his wife calcium supplements in the form of capsules that could be pulled apart, emptied and refilled with poison.
Jurors saw video footage of a trip detectives took to a CVS pharmacy in search of the same coral calcium capsules Essa purchased. Among dozens of brands and types of calcium -- tablets, soft chews and caplets -- the store carried only two kinds of encapsulated calcium.
And the generic CVS brand Essa bought was kept in a single row on the bottom of five shelves.
However, the detectives could not pin Essa to the cyanide purchase, Matejcic said, despite exhaustive searches through purchase and delivery records of several distributors, as well as Essa's computers.
The trial resumes today.

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The defense rested its case Wednesday in the trial of Yazeed Essa, the former doctor accused of killing his wife, Rosemarie, by cyanide.

It took Essa's defense team just two days to wrap up their case.

All indications Wednesday morning were that Essa was about to take the stand in his own defense.

Judge Deena Calabrese even advised Essa of his rights and gave him and his attorneys the lunch hour to decide whether or not he would take the stand.

But after the lunch break came a game changer.

Defense Attorney Mark Marein announced Essa would remain silent and the defense would rest its case.

Coincidentally, February 24, 2010 the five year anniversary of the death or Rosemarie.

If found guilty, Essa faces 20 years to life in prison.

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February 25, 2010
Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday in the aggravated murder trial of former Gates Mills doctor Yazeed Essa, who is accused of lacing his wife's calcium supplements with cyanide in 2005.
Prosecutors rested their case earlier this week but called two rebuttal witnesses today.
The first, a longtime friend of the Essas, told jurors that Yazeed Essa said that on the day his wife, Rosemarie, died, he gave her a double dose of the calcium supplement that turned out to be contaminated.
The second rebuttal witness, who worked with Yazeed Essa in the emergency room at Akron General Hospital, testified that Essa humiliated his wife at a holiday party a year before her death when he ordered her in front of friends to shut up and sit down.
Essa's attorneys rested their case Wednesday afternoon, quashing rumors that their client planned to testify in his own defense.

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A doctor accused of killing his wife with cyanide apparently had a last-minute change of heart and decided against testifying at his murder trial today as the defense rested its case.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Deena R. Calabrese, informed that Dr. Yazeed Essa intended to testify after the noontime break, reminded him that he wasn't required to take the stand. She suggested that he think about the issue at lunch.

When the trial resumed, defense attorney Mark Marein told a hushed courtroom awaiting Essa's testimony that the defense's case was finished. The courtroom crowd spilled into the corridor and into a second hallway where TV news magazines have been taping the trial.

Essa, watching from the defense table, was wearing a dark suit and, following his practice throughout the trial, a wedding band.

The defense team didn't specify why Essa didn't testify. Attorneys are under an order barring them from commenting.

Attorneys and the judge, without the jury present, worked on exhibit and jury instruction issues after the defense rested.

Essa, 41, has pleaded not guilty in the death of Rosemarie Essa, 38. She died Feb. 24, 2005, after taking a cyanide-lace calcium tablet and crashing her SUV into an oncoming car near the couple's home in the upscale suburb of Gates Mills.

The prosecution has said Essa poisoned her to free himself from a loveless marriage. The defense has suggested a mistress wanted to get rid of Essa's wife so she could marry the doctor.

Essa, a Detroit native whose family is from a Palestinian territory, was an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center and fled to Lebanon after police seized drug bottles at his home. He gave up an extradition fight and was returned from Cyprus to Ohio last year.

If convicted, Essa faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Skipping testimony in his own defense allowed Essa to avoid cross-examination by the prosecutor and questions about damaging trial testimony, including:

* A witness who had helped Essa get an apartment in Beirut testified that Essa bragged about emptying his wife's calcium supplement capsules and refilling them with cyanide.

* The victim's sister testified that Essa acted strangely and displayed a bottle of calcium capsules after his wife was poisoned.

* A nurse who was his mistress testified that Essa asked before his wife's death if she would stay "if something bad were to happen."

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A jury in Ohio deliberated for the day without reaching a verdict in the trial of a doctor accused of killing his wife by lacing her calcium capsule with cyanide.

Jurors must return Wednesday in the trial of 41-year-old Dr. Yazeed Essa (EE-suh).

He's on trial in the 2005 death of his 38-year-old wife, Rosemarie. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, with parole possible after 20 years.

Prosecutors argued that the defendant was determined to escape a loveless marriage. The defense suggested that a mistress of the doctor might have killed the victim and wanted to marry him.

Essa was an emergency room doctor at Akron General Medical Center and fled to Lebanon after his wife's death. He gave up an extradition fight and was returned from Cyprus to Ohio last year.

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I’m sitting in the creepy quiet of a Cleveland courtroom, where it’s easy to forget that the clock is ticking toward a verdict in the trial of an area doctor accused of poisoning his wife and fleeing to Lebanon, before the FBI, among others, brought him to trial six weeks ago.



On February 24 2005, Rosemarie DiPuccio-Essa died after a low-speed car accident - with no apparent injuries. Nearly two months later, tests revealed the cause of death was cyanide poisoning.

Will her husband, Dr. Yazeed Essa, be convicted and sent to prison for life for slipping the cyanide to her in calcium supplements? Will her relatives get some degree of closure, five years after they formed a family task force to figure out how she died? On these questions - and a host of others - the jury is out.

But one thing is certain.

This trial has left the courtroom echoing – with the salacious flashbacks of two women Dr. Essa was allegedly seeing on the side, the sobs of the friend who testified Rosie called her as she was dying, the explosive allegations of a Lebanese fugitive, who testified he heard Essa confess - and the crowd’s collective gasp when Essa’s own brother – facing prison himself – turned on his brother and testified to the same thing.

If the tales are true about Yazeed Essa’s double life, his cold-hearted plot to poison the mother of his two young children, his use of an underground railroad of shadowy contacts to flee the country and his plans to start a new life overseas using a forged identity, it’s enough to make you wonder how well you really know the people closest to you.

Stay tuned for the verdict.

The case will be featured on an upcoming episode of 48 Hours Mystery.

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Rosemarie Essa, left, husband Dr. Yazeed Essa, and his mother, at their wedding.

The jury has been dismissed for a second day in the aggravated murder trial deliberations of a Gates Mills doctor accused of killing his wife with cyanide. Deliberations will resume Thursday morning.

Jurors are deciding the fate of 41-year-old Dr. Yazeed Essa, accused in the 2005 death of his wife Rosemarie, who died after taking a cyanide-laced calcium capsule.

About mid-morning Wednesday, jurors sent a message to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Deena Calabrese, saying they had a question. Jurors wanted to see if they could open one of the calcium capsules which prosecutors had displayed at the trial.

The request was granted and jurors continued their deliberations until noon, when they took a lunch break. They resumed deliberations at 1:30 p.m. Jurors were dismissed just after 4 p.m.

Members of the jury are not being sequestered and are allowed to return to their homes in the evening.

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The verdict has been reached at this hour and will be announced within the hour.

GUILTY!!!!!

Bravo to the fine citizens on the jury for doing a responsible and good job! Justice has been served for Rosemarie Essa! :cheers:

It was a day like no other in the Cuyahoga County Justice Center.

After three and a half days of deliberations, a jury of seven men and five women convicted Gates Mills Dr. Yazeed Essa of murdering his own wife.

In an unprecedented show of support, the entire jury, plus the alternate jurors, addressed the media and Rosemarie Essa's family afterward.

They presented a united front -- these 12 jurors and alternates charged with deciding the fate of Dr. Yazeed Essa.

"What took so long? 204 pieces of evidence, giving him the benefit of the doubt, the obligation of being fair and impartial," one juror said.

They answered a number of questions about how they came to the conclusion that Rosemarie's murder was at the hands of her husband.

Essa's brother, Firas Essa, was one witness that impressed the jury. He was on the stand twice. The second time, he told jurors that Yazeed Essa admitted killing his wife.

"Initially, he was very controlled and guarded, emotionally and physically, and then when he came back, he seemed to just kind of let his guard down and speak the truth," one juror said.

Jurors found the defendant's demeanor disturbing during trial.

"He looked like a stone. He didn't look like he took too much emotion from it, even though what happened is very serious," another juror said.

"A lot of grieving people care or at least give some type of emotion," one juror said.

"I was watching him the whole time during the trial. There was no expression on his face. He hadn't seen these kids in a long time," one juror said. "There was no expression on his face."

Essa's defense attorneys Mark Marein and Steve Bradley tried to convince jurors that one of Essa's jealous mistresses killed Rosemarie. They didn't buy it.

"It ended up being pretty weak. They never really put any of the mistresses in the house before Rosemarie died. I don't think that was hammered home or brought up," one juror said.

As the jurors were ready to leave and get back to their own lives, Rosemarie's family had one last thing for them to hear.

"We want to on behalf of the family. We saw you in the hallway and it was hard not to smile," Rosemarie's brother Dominic DiPuccio said.

Often times, jurors will take several "show of hands" votes during certain periods of deliberation. The Essa jurors said it took only one vote over the three days and the outcome, as we now know, was unanimous

.http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=131905&catid=3

I'm so happy to be moving this thread to the convicted section of VH!

Yazeed Essa, an Ohio Doctor, Has Been Found Guilty of Aggravated Murdering His Wife with Cyanide Poison so he could be with his mistress.
The jury heard weeks of testimony before returning the verdict against Dr. Yazeed Essa, 41. His wife, Rosemarie Essa, collapsed while driving Feb. 24, 2005, and crashed her car into another vehicle about five miles from the couple’s home.
The ‘playboy doctor’ was accused unveiling his wife’s body in the ER for everyone present to see without emotion — and again, of stoically watching the police dash-cam video of Rosemarie Essa being transported from her car crash to an ambulance, gasping for life.
“He was a good doctor,” a man who worked with the doctor at Akron General Hospital told this reporter.
“But he was sleeping with everybody,” Essa’s coworker said.
Such a sad ending to a beautiful life of a woman.

Source: Yazeed Essa Guilty: Doctor Murdered Wife | Daily World Buzz [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Via: Daily World Buzz

Yes, this is awesome news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The look on his face was palpable in court today!!!! Too damned bad!

I have only one thing to say about this closed case:

Thank God that Rosemarie called her friend and told her that her husband made her take the calcium pills and that they were making her sick.

Thank God she didn't get on the high-speed highway like he expected her to travel, because it would have put other innocent people at risk when she lost control of the vehicle while dying. He expected her to take the pills and for all to assume that she died from a car crash at high speed, no one knowing about the pills. He would have gotten away with it and, being an ER doctor, he knew nobody would ever know about the cyanide had her actions not tipped everybody off to it.

Thank God, also, that he hadn't found a way to contaminate more calcium pills at a CVS store to prove that it was not him, but product tampering; he told a girlfriend that all that was needed was for others to die from taking the same pills, so this must have crossed his mind to do this.

Thank God also that he is now removed from practicing medicine---they say he was a good doctor? Well how could he continue to be a good doctor if it is obvious he doesn't care about human life at all, except for his own?

May she rest in peace, there has been justice done on her behalf. Thank God for that.

Dr. Yazeed Essa, 41, found guilty of aggravated murder in his wife's death from cyanide poisoning, was sentenced to life in prison with possible parole after 20 years Tuesday afternoon.

Essa was convicted Friday of lacing his wife's calcium supplement capsules with cyanide on Feb. 24, 2005. On that day, Rosemarie Essa collapsed while driving and crashed her SUV into another vehicle in Highland Heights, a suburb adjacent to the couple's Gates Mills home.

He was sentenced this afternoon just after 3 p.m. in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Deena Calabrese.

Essa faced a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole in 20 years.

At the beginning of the sentencing Tuesday afternoon, the courtroom proceedings were victim statements, from Rosemarie DiPuccio Essa's family and friends.

Her father thanked the prosecutors, the Highland Heights police, the judge and the jury. "We were lucky enough to get a jury that separated the facts from the smokescreen," her father Rocco DiPuccio Sr. said.

Her father said that he and his wife, Gee Gee, were lucky enough to have four wonderful children and they had wonderful lives.

"On Feb. 24, 2005, our luck ran out," he said. That was the day that Rosemarie died. He added that, now that Essa has been convicted, "maybe there will be less nights that my wife cries herself to sleep."

With tears streaming down her face, Gee Gee said, "what do you say to the person who murders the mother of their children."

She paused and continued, "Seven weeks of looking at the devil in the eyes. A murdering coward with no heart, no compassion and no remorse. Evil."

Gee Gee added, "May your life in prison be as miserable as you are."

Rosemarie's brother, Dominic, read statements from Rosemarie and Yazeed's two children, Lena and Armand. Amid tears from Dominic and her other brother, Rocco, he read what the two children had written.

They said they were sad for all the times that they will never see her again, every day and on special days. But there was also one heartbreaking sentence that Dominic read: "Our old Daddy won't be able to hurt us or anyone else again."

Rosemarie's mother Gee Gee DiPuccio said, "What do you say to a person who murders the mother of his children? I spent seven weeks looking at the devil in his eyes."

After her five-minute speech, Gee Gee ended with, "She got you, Yaz, and the Essa curse ends today."

Rocco DiPuccio, Rosemarie's brother, started his statement with "I've had my 'dukes up' for five years and I'm tired."

A few moments later, Dominic DiPuccio turned to Essa and demanded that he finally admit the murder and apologize for the crime.

"Are you man enough? Are you?" said DiPuccio, "stop wasting your brother's money. Are you man enough?"

Yazeed Essa declined to speak on his own behalf.

Calabrese addressed Essa, saying he had "so little respect for women." Also, she said she "hopes (your children) forget you and consider Dominic their father."

Dominic and Julie DiPuccio are raising Rosemarie's two children, in addition to four of their own.

Calabrese also granted the prosecution's motion that Essa pay the extradition cost of $41,000, the amount that taxpayers would be billed for his extradition from Cyprus.

Calabrese sentenced him under the new law that limited her sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

During seven weeks of testimony, Cuyahoga County Prosecutors claimed the former emergency room doctor at Akron General Hospital killed his wife so he could be with one of his many mistresses.

After the trial, Julie DiPuccio, Dominic's wife, told Channel 3's Mike O'Mara that, "He is pure evil. What he has done to our family and what he has done to the children is unforgivable. He is evil."

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