Anselmo murder trial: Victim's husband and three of her children testify
TAVARES — Sue Ellen Anselmo was a mentally ill, uncaring mother who was a danger to herself and her children before her stepson strangled her to death, her husband and three of her children testified Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Brian Welke at first was not going to let her husband, John, testify.
“John Anselmo is not on trial. Sue Ellen Anseslmo is not on trial,” he told defense attorney Richard Hornsby before the jury came into the courtroom. He didn’t say it, but he could have added that Sue Ellen is not alive to deny the allegations.
But Hornsby argued that he had to let John Anselmo testify if the jury was going to understand all the “crazy talk.”
Ian Anselmo is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity for killing her in her car at Greenwood Cemetery in Eustis in March 2019. The state is trying to get a conviction for second-degree murder and causing the death of an unborn child.
“I accidentally killed someone,” he told a 911 operator on March 13, 2019. He was sobbing and wailing so loudly it was hard for the dispatcher to understand what he was saying.
Police found the 39-year-old Eustis hairdresser slumped over in the front seat of her red Trailblazer. She had been strangled manually and with a phone cord. She also had blunt force trauma to her head.
Not only would Hornby’s witnesses paint a dreary picture of Sue-Ellen, but he kept asking them about their lifestyle that he described to jurors Tuesday as a “cult.”
The children, for example, were not allowed to have friends, go to other people’s houses, have visitors, play sports, attend public school after elementary grades, have their own phones or drivers’ licenses. The children seem fiercely loyal to their father and what they described as his “animated and protective” personality.
Assistant State Attorney Tom Wieczorek made numerous objections, but John often managed to get in some of his damaging allegations, including infidelity, suicide attempts in front of the children, neglect, and domestic violence.
It was the opposite of Dejah Waite’s earlier testimony. The adult biological daughter of Sue-Ellen, whose birthday is just one month’s difference from Ian’s 26th birthday, accused John of physical and sexual abuse before she moved out at age 18. She wrote a letter to mother days before the murder telling her about her allegations and sympathized with her being hit, which spurred Sue-Ellen to leave John and take their five biological children to Waite’s house.
Sue-Ellen liked to bang her head against the wall, said John. Once, she grabbed a handful of pills and attempted to swallow them in front of the children.
Another time, she went into his “personal drawer” in the kitchen and pulled out his handgun and pointed it at her head before John and Ian managed to get it away from her, said John’s daughter by previous marriage, Nico.
Nico, just shy of her 21st birthday, seemed surprised that anyone would think it odd that she had no friends or boyfriend, except for an email pen pal, because she was “living in a house with the most wonderful people in the world,” and planned to take care of her younger siblings if her father becomes unable to do so.
Asked what role Sue-Ellen played in the home, she said: “Sue Ellen was not a role, just an entity. She caused problems, she was disruptive.”
Rajko, 15, who is Sue Ellen’s biological son, testified that Ian was a “second father” in the household. Asked if Sue-Ellen was maternal, he said “absolutely not.”
He was 10 when Sue-Ellen and Waite arrived with child family welfare workers and two police officers to take them to Dejah’s house.
“Your daddy did a very bad thing,” she told him.
John told him in a phone conversation to beg his mother to come home. He got his wish after he tried to strangle his mother with a bed sheet, Waite testified. He reportedly said, “I would have strangled her if she was not pregnant.”
“I don’t remember that,” Rejko said.
After Sue-Ellen was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Nico and Rajko attacked Dejah and her mother-in-law at an informal gathering at the graveside so friends could bring flowers. John and the children had been removing the graveside flowers.
“Did you try to strangle her?” Hornsby asked.
“I was trying to take out her eyes because she ruined our family,” she said. “Because of her my mother is dead. Because of her my brother’s going to go away forever.”
John later had Sue-Ellen’s body dug up and cremated.
All of the Anselmos wept at some point in the testimony, including Ian, who sat at the defense table with his head in his hands, nervously moving his right leg up and down.
Adding to the strange picture was the family’s testimony about Ian’s childlike love of toys, including a teddy bear named “Puffy” and a plastic turtle named “Slash.” He talked to the toys until the homicide. Hornsby pulled the toys out of a paper bag to show them to the jury. Ian put them back in the bag, pausing for just a moment to sniff the bag before stowing it behind the defense table.
Also called to the stand for the defense was Dr. Hector DeLeon, a Tavares psychiatrist who treated Ian for years for what he said was major depressive disorder and anxiety.
At some point, just before the fatal attack, there was an issue with his medications: Lexapro for depression and Vyvanse for anxiety. There was a question about whether Sue-Ellen had taken his pills before she left, or a doctor’s appointment scheduling led to him not getting his prescription renewed before the doctor went on vacation. A pharmacy called the day after the murder to say the Vyvanse was ready to be picked up.
DeLeon said he had no idea that a life-threatening crisis was brewing.
In the hours leading up to the attack, Ian was catatonic, sitting by the window, looking out but seeing nothing, and thinking because he had a close bond with Sue-Ellen he could convince her to come home with his siblings, family members said.
Sue-Ellen and Ian had developed a close bond because she had become an enthusiastic wrestling fan.
John and the children had been especially upset because their siblings were not present for his birthday, or for a family celebration for Ian, who had made the dean’s list in college, had just published a book, and had gotten a tryout date for WWE wrestling.
Then, she called, agreeing to see him.
“Got to go,” he shouted, and ran out the door barefooted. Minutes later, she was dead.
“This was the tipping point for the emotional unleashing of Ian,” Nico said.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Victim's family members testify in Anselmo murder trial
