Mother of four found guilty of killing man

Sylvia Maraman faces a maximum sentence of life for second-degree murder in the death of her elderly neighbor.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 12, 2000

[Times photo: Carrie Pratt] Sylvia Maraman.

DADE CITY -- After 10 hours of deliberations, a Pasco County jury on Friday found Sylvia Maraman guilty of second-degree murder.

The 39-year-old mother of four, convicted of killing elderly neighbor Arthur Danner because he allegedly molested her mentally disabled daughter, faces a maximum of life in prison for the crime. Sentencing is scheduled for March 17.

Sitting before a photographic backdrop of Pasco County judges, Maraman, dressed in a maroon pantsuit and high heels, swallowed hard as the verdict was read.

As as a bailiff fingerprinted her, her eyes welled with tears. Led out of the courtroom, she silently mouthed "good-bye" to her family in the gallery.

Afterward, Maraman's family shared their sorrow over cigarettes in the courtyard of the courthouse.

Gloria Bateman, Maraman's aunt and one-time foster mother, repeated the defense's contention that Maraman killed Danner in self-defense.

When Danner died on May 24, 1998, he was under criminal investigation, accused by Maraman two months earlier of molesting her then-12-year-old daughter.

This came on top of a life of misery for Maraman: abandoned by her father before she was born, raped at 14, trapped by drug and alcohol addiction, hospitalized for slitting her wrists.

"The system completely failed her," Bateman said of her niece. "She's meat for the predator."

"It doesn't matter if it's an insect or other animal. A mother will protect her young with her life," Bateman added. "And Sylvia may have to pay for that with her life."

Maraman never denied she killed Danner, for 18 years a family friend, financial supporter and benefactor.

She said Danner molested her daughter while living in a neighboring mobile home on Causeway Boulevard in Land O'Lakes.

On Memorial Day weekend, as she collected belongings from Danner's trailer, Maraman said Danner bragged about assaulting her daughter and vowed to do it again.

Maraman rushed to her mobile home, grabbed a chrome-plated six-shooter, hid it behind a pillow and returned to Danner's trailer.

Danner was hit by six slugs from less than 2 feet away and died of a shot to the heart.

But Maraman wasn't done. She went home to reload, returned to Danner's home and squeezed a final shot into the man's groin.

As she told the St. Petersburg Times in a jailhouse interview in May 1998: "I want to let all child molesters know they should lose their p----."

Maraman's attorney, Darlene Calzon Barror, argued the shooting was the desperate act of a woman whose mind was cloudy after swallowing a handful of Valium with beer.

Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson gave the jury the option of acquitting Maraman or convicting her on one of three charges: first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Barror urged the jury to consider the death "excusable homicide."

The length of the deliberations suggests the jury nearly deadlocked.

About 10:30 p.m. Thursday, after the first seven hours of deliberations, jurors told the judge they couldn't reach a verdict. Swanson urged them to get some sleep before reconsidering Maraman's guilt or innocence in the morning.

And so they did. Friday, after requesting court reporters recite two hours of trial testimony, including Maraman's emotional testimony from Wednesday, the jury reached a verdict about 12:45 p.m.

The case attracted national attention. Court TV taped the trial for a later showing on its cable network. Talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger sympathized with Maraman Friday morning on her nationally syndicated call-in radio show.

Swanson let the jurors leave the courtroom five minutes before he dismissed the onlookers in the gallery after the verdict.

Reached at home, one juror, Diana Birdsong Adams of Land O'Lakes, declined to discuss how the jury reached a consensus.

"I don't want to talk about it," Adams said. "All I can say is that it was a very difficult decision."

Barror said she plans to demand a mistrial because Swanson didn't let her address the self-defense theory in her closing arguments. If the mistrial attempt fails, Barror will file an appeal.

But that's small consolation for Maraman's family. Even if Swanson sentences Maraman to something less than the maximum -- the possible range is three years to life -- Maraman probably will miss her youngest children's formative years.

As Bateman sat glumly outside the courthouse, Maraman's mother, Frances Hayman, grabbed and hugged her sister-in-law.

"I want to go home," Hayman said through her tears. "It's not fair. It's not fair at all.'

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