Murder trial begins with details of 'cult' in which defendant was raised

TAVARES — Ian Anselmo’s lawyer, pleading that his client is not guilty by reason of insanity, told jurors Tuesday that Anselmo was brought up in a “cult” by his abusive, controlling father, John Anselmo, and was suffering from prescription drug withdrawal when he strangled and killed his pregnant stepmother.

Anselmo's stepsister, Dejah-Thoris Waite, testified about the horrors of family life and the abuse heaped upon her mother, 39-year-old Sue-Ellen Anselmo, before she was killed on March 13, 2019.

Defense attorney Richard Hornsby led her through those years.

Waite said she ran away from home when she was 18 and moved in with her maternal grandparents.

At age 8, she was forced to do push-ups until she was exhausted, awakened at night, and forced to sleep on the concrete floor of the garage.

“The boys had it worse,” she said. They had to sleep outdoors, regardless of the weather.

She said she was slapped in the face, and slapped harder if she didn’t cry.

The children were only allowed to watch old TV shows, like the Bob Hope show, and a few children’s shows, like “Mr. Wiggles.”

Ian, who was 20 when he attacked his Sue-Ellen, had stuffed plush toys and other playthings in his room. He had a Mensa IQ, had written a book, was going to attend UCF classes online and was training to become a professional wrestler, but had no driver’s license.

The children were not allowed to have any friends. No one could come over, and they were not allowed to visit anyone else. Waite said she and Ian went to public school until the sixth grade, and then were homeschooled. They are the same age.

The only time they left was to go shopping with John, which they thought was a “big deal,” or to go to a Catholic splinter church, which had 20 members, with the family making up about one-fourth of the congregation. The sect does not recognize the current pope as the leader of the church.

They lived by the “Anselmo Code,” Hornsby said: Tell no one outside what went on in the house.

The children thought their upbringing was “normal,” Waite said.

She said she finally was allowed to attend classes at Lake-Sumter State College, but she was told she could not leave the building. One day she confided to another student, who said that wasn’t normal.

Hornsby asked what John’s reaction was to that.

“He hurt me physically,” she said.

Hornsby asked her if it was like he was trying to get absolute obedience in trained dogs. She said it was.

Sue-Ellen was a popular hairdresser in Eustis and was the only breadwinner when John lost his job with the school system. Yet, she was still expected to  take care of the children and the house when she got off work.

After Waite left, John forbade her from speaking to her siblings, even changing her passwords that linked her to her family. He told her that he would lift the ban if she joined the Air Force, but then reneged when she was already committed. She was able to get a medical discharge, however.

After marrying her boyfriend, she wrote to her mother revealing that she had been sexually abused when she lived at home. She also told her mother: “Every time I saw you get hit it was like I was getting hit myself.”

Sue Ellen left to move in with Dejah with her four biological children, leaving her 16-year-old stepdaughter and Ian at home.

That led to a flurry of furious texts by John and Ian, accusations of infidelity, and messages begging her to return with the children.

One night during the week-long separation, Sue-Ellen called to talk to the children. John began screaming over the phone to the 10-year-old, telling him to “get out of the house!”

Waite walked into the bedroom where Sue-Ellen had been talking on the phone and saw the boy hitting his mother with a flashlight. “He had a sheet around her neck trying to strangle her,” she testified. He said, “If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d kill her.”

“Clearly he had been brainwashed,” Hornsby said.

Sue-Ellen took the 10-year-old back to live with his father.

Hornsby’s job is to convince jurors that Anselmo meets the legal definition of being “unable to appreciate the wrongfulness and did not know what he was doing, or, if he knew what he was doing, did not know what he was doing was wrong.”

Assistant State Attorney Nick Camuccio’s job is to show Ian is guilty of second-degree murder and causing the death of the six-month-old unborn child by killing the mother.

Following her brave, straight-forward testimony, Waite underwent cross-examination from the state. Camuccio asked her if Ian had been taught about the Ten Commandments, and “thou shall not kill?’’

“Yes,” she said.

The state rested its case late in the afternoon, but not before hearing from the medical examiner who performed the autopsy. Sue-Ellen was strangled manually and with a cellphone cord, said Dr. Shandelle Norford. She also had blunt force trauma injuries to her head.

A crime lab analyst testified that she found a mixture of Ian’s and Sue-Ellen’s DNA from blood stains on his jeans, on the phone cord, and under her fingernails. A detective pointed to photos of scratches on Ian’s arm. The chances of the genetic material belonging to anyone else was 1 in 750 billion, she said.

Jurors also heard a recording of the wailing of Ian to a 911 operator. He was so unhinged it was hard for the operator to understand what he was saying.

“I guess I strangled her.”

“You did or you didn’t?”

“I don’t remember doing it. I remember the argument.”

The “argument” consisted of all the accusations he and his father had leveled at her.

The family tragedy continued when Sue-Ellen was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Eustis. Dejah noticed that flowers kept being removed from the grave. A trail camera later caught John and some of the children removing them.

She set aside a Saturday to encourage Sue Ellen’s clients and friends to bring flowers. John showed up with the 10-year-old and Dejah’s 16-year-old stepsister. They attacked her and her mother-in-law, with the girl choking her and yanking out handfuls of hair.

“Aren’t you going to do anything about it?” DeJah shouted to John.

Police arrested the 16-year-old and charged her with misdemeanor battery.

He then had Sue-Ellen’s body dug up and cremated.

Suddenly, she had no place to bring flowers. It also ran afoul of her religion.

“Catholics are not supposed to have their body cremated,” she said.

The trial continues with defense mental health experts. It is expected to wrap up with jury deliberations on Friday.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Murder trial begins in Lake County; defense argues insanity