. http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=46070
Christian Longo writes to family friends from jail
NEWPORT - From his cell in the Lincoln County Jail, Christian Longo has been writing letters to family friends, not admitting his guilt outright, but describing his actions last December.
"He said..."I picked the wrong reasons and I might have done something wrong, but I did do things for a reason and we were the happiest we'd ever been for the last year that she was alive," says Longo's brother-in-law Mark Baker.
Longo, accused of killing his wife Mary Jane and their three children last December along the Oregon Coast, was found by Mexican authorities and FBI agents at a resort beach camp near Cancun in January.
In his letters, Baker says Longo also mentions reuniting with Mary Jane and their children because of the couple's Jehovah's Witness faith in everlasting life.
"He says they'll be back together someday," says Baker. "Man...it just made me sick when I heard that stuff."
Baker spoke to KATU News on the phone from his auto shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He says he was appalled when he learned Longo's attorneys asked the judge to throw out his case.
"I thought it was pretty ridiculous, and that they shouldn't even question something like that because of what's happened and the evidence and all they have against him," says Baker.
Mary Jane's family is still struggling to pay for a headstone to mark her grave and the graves of Sadie, Zachary and Madison.
Longo's lawyer files motion challenging death penalty
The attorney for accused killer Christian Longo asked a judge to throw out his aggravated murder case Wednesday, claiming the death penalty Longo could face is unconstitutional.
The 28-year-old Longo is charged with seven counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his wife and three small children. Their bodies were pulled from Oregon coastal waterways late last year. Longo was arrested in Mexico.
Longo's next court appearance is scheduled for early October, when more motions are expected and he likely will enter a plea.
The motion - common in capital cases - attacks the death penalty as an unconstitutionally flawed punishment that depends largely on the whims of prosecutors.
Lincoln County District Attorney Bernice Barnett says she expects the trial to begin next spring or summer.
