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Suspect pleads guilty to avoid death penalty

The Homosassa man was charged in the death of his landlady. The victim's family supported the plea deal.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published September 30, 2005

INVERNESS - Christopher William Bean will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a 68-year-old Homosassa woman who had rented a room to him.

Bean, 26, faced the death penalty for the killing of Betty Diane Gallo, who was found dead inside her apartment in December. But prosecutors recently offered Bean life in prison instead of the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea.

"You will, in fact, serve the rest of your life in the state prison system," Circuit Judge Ric Howard said during the hearing Thursday morning.

The plea agreement was extended to Bean with the support of Gallo's family as well as the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, said Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino.

Wearing a jail-issued red jumpsuit, Bean stood quietly next to his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Daniel Lewan, as the judge read the terms of the agreement to him.

Bean, who has an extensive criminal history, shared Gallo's apartment in a housing complex just east of U.S. 19. The two were not related and shared a landlord-tenant relationship, investigators said.

Before Gallo's death, Bean had been arrested 16 times on a variety of charges by several agencies, including the Ocala Police Department, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Marion County Sheriff's Office, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Neighbors said Bean moved in with Gallo about a month before her death.

When someone called the Sheriff's Office to ask deputies to check on Gallo, investigators went to the apartment, where they found Gallo's body. She had been stabbed 11 times and struck on the head several times with a blunt object, Magrino said.

Investigators say they found two knives and a hammer with her blood on them inside the home.

Bean wasn't at the home when investigators found Gallo. Law enforcement officers located him in Marion County and asked him about Gallo's death, Magrino said. At the time of the interview, Bean was wearing sneakers spotted with blood, Magrino said. Tests on the shoes showed the DNA on the sneakers was Gallo's.

Bean was arrested in Marion County on a Citrus County warrant for burglary, according to arrest reports.

A grand jury later indicted him for Gallo's slaying.

The decision to offer Bean a plea agreement was made after conversations with Gallo's relatives, Magrino said.

Gallo's sister told prosecutors she'd rather know that Bean was in prison than go through years of death penalty litigation, he said.

The Citrus County Sheriff's Office also agreed with the plea agreement, and several detectives were in the courtroom to watch Bean's sentencing.

--Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 860-7312 or vansickle@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 30, 2005, 01:35:17]