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“Mom charged in fatal beating of daughter, 14”

Monday, February 07, 2005
BY JUDITH LUCAS AND JULIA SCOTT

Star-Ledger Staff

Police have charged a Roselle Park woman with bludgeoning her daughter to death Sunday morning as the pajama-clad 14-year-old lay sleeping in her bed.

Lynn Giovanni, 45, repeatedly hit her daughter, Nicole, in the head with a hammer and then switched to a shovel to inflict the final blows, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said yesterday.

The girl, a freshman at Roselle Catholic High School , had no defensive wounds on her body, borough police Capt. Cris Tucci said.

What Giovanni did immediately after the alleged murder, or where she went, was unclear yesterday. But at about 5:15 p.m., authorities said, she crashed her car into a guardrail on Route 78 in Bridgewater in an apparent suicide attempt.

When state police responded to the accident scene, Giovanni -- whose injuries were minor -- confessed what she had done, police said. Roselle Park police broke into the house at 146 W. Grant Ave. and found the bloodied body of the girl.

Friends of the family described Lynn Giovanni as a troubled woman, beset by bouts of depression and mounting financial problems. She also was frantic over the prospect that her ex-husband, John Giovanni, was attempting to gain custody of Nicole, said a former neighbor, Teresa Santucci of Roselle .

Giovanni, who was living in her mother's home in Roselle Park , had spent $30,000 in the custody battle, Santucci said.

Romankow confirmed that the couple was battling for custody of Nicole. But, he said, Giovanni "knew right from wrong."

"There is no reason or justification why any mother should kill her child," Romankow said. "She went into that room with the purpose of killing her daughter. She knew what she was going to do. She knew she was going to kill her."

The prosecutor would not comment on a possible motive in the slaying. He said the hammer and shovel were recovered inside the house, but would not say where.

Giovanni was being held last night at the Union County Jail in Elizabeth in lieu of $250,000 bail, pending transfer to the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital . She is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow.

Santucci said he was shocked to learn her former neighbor had been accused of killing her daughter. Giovanni regarded her daughter as the most precious thing in her life, Santucci said.

The prospect of losing Nicole could have pushed Giovanni over the edge, the former neighbor said. "Don't you think that would make you depressed?" she asked.

In recent years, Lynn Giovanni had lost her job, was forced to sell her home in Roselle , and had to deal with the adolescent rebellion of her daughter, Santucci said.

"There was just too much going on in her life," she said.

John Giovanni, who lives in Union Township , could not be reached for comment, but Romankow described him as devastated over the death of his daughter.

"He was beside himself," Romankow said. "He was making application for custody."

Another former neighbor said most of the arguments between Lynn and Nicole Giovanni seemed typical of a concerned parent and an increasingly independent teen.

" Lynn struggled with Nicole just like any other parent did," said Chris Dansereau, 42, a speech pathologist who lived across the street from Giovanni in Roselle . Dansereau said Lynn Giovanni often confided in her.

The downward spiral began when Giovanni lost her job as a manager at Lucent Technologies about four years ago, friends said. The company had moved her position to Allentown , Pa. , neighbors said. She commuted for over a month, but was unhappy and quit.

That left her without health care, a problem for Giovanni, who had health problems, Dansereau said.

Giovanni suffered from a variety of ailments, friends said. She was taking Zoloft for depression and needed pills to sleep, Dansereau said.

Giovanni struggled to find a job with benefits, neighbors said.

Finally, unable to make her mortgage payments for the Hory Street home in Roselle that Nicole grew up in, she sold the house in August 2003 for $198,000, according to property records.

The pair moved in with Giovanni's mother, Angela Gravina, about 1 1/2 miles away in neighboring Roselle Park . Gravina was in Savannah , Ga. , when her granddaughter was killed, authorities said.

Nicole apparently struggled with the change. "Nicole was used to having her own house and having friends over and she couldn't do that at her grandma's house," Santucci said.

Neighbors on West Grant Avenue in Roselle Park said there were other signs of trouble.

Nicole would run away, and the police would bring her back, they said. She tried to commit suicide once, about a year ago, Dansereau said.

At Roselle Catholic High School in Roselle , Nicole mostly took honors classes and was a member of the indoor track team, said Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark, which runs the school. Nicole attended St. Theresa's School in Kenilworth from kindergarten to eighth grade, Goodness said.

"She was friendly, very outgoing, a likable kid," Goodness said. Her track coach said she had an "extremely good work ethic."

Yesterday morning, two of Nicole's friends placed a bouquet of flowers and a sign reading "rest in peace you sweet angel" in front of the West Grant Avenue home.

Debbie Petock, 15, who said she had known Nicole since kindergarten, said the girl was "always happy," but had run away from home before.

Mary Omelczenko, 44, went to Roselle High School with Lynn Giovanni and lives on Grant Street

" Lynn told me she had difficulty with her daughter," Omelczenko said. "I feel horrible. I am shocked."

[Admin]

“Slain by Mom”

New York Post
8 February 2005
By Perry Chiarmonte and Leonard Greene

A suicidal mom, despondent over her divorce and struggling with her teenage daughter, beat the 14-year-old to death with a hammer and shovel before she tried to kill herself on a New Jersey highway, police said yesterday. Cops found a disoriented Lynn Giovanni, 45, Sunday afternoon near a highway exit in Berkeley Heights , where she had crashed her car into a guardrail in an apparent suicide attempt.

There, according to prosecutors, she told state troopers about her horrible crime: How she bashed in her daughter's head while the teenager slept and took off in her car to end her own life. Troopers called police in Roselle Park , where Giovanni lives with her mother and daughter. Moments later, cops found the bloody body of Nicole Giovanni.

"It was absolutely premeditated," said Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow. "This young girl's life was taken without any purpose. It is inexplicable why any parent would ever take the life of a child. "We mourn her loss, and we will prosecute her mother," he said. Romankow said Nicole, a well-liked freshman at Roselle Catholic HS, was sleeping at about 9:30 a.m. Sunday when her mother came into her room and struck her several times in the head with a hammer and then once with a shovel.

Lynn Giovanni fled in a 2000 Honda Civic and was discovered eight hours later, after she crashed her car on Route 78 nearby. Romankow said no argument immediately preceded the attack. Giovanni's mother, Angela Gravina, was not home at the time of the murder, Romankow said. Gravina was out of town and could not be reached for comment. Giovanni, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, was taken to Overlook Hospital in Summit before she was transferred to the Trenton Psychiatric Institute, where she was being held on $250,000 bail and charged with murder.

Friends said Giovanni suffered from depression and had difficulty dealing with a string of misfortunes, including a recent divorce, job difficulties and trouble with Nicole.

"She suffered every day of her life," said a friend named Chris. "She was on a lot of medication, and I wondered if that had anything to do with this." Friends said Lynn Giovanni had written a book, "Judicial System Loopholes," last year that slammed the court's treatment of domestic violence. Giovanni used the nom de plume "Faith Hope."

[Admin]

Mom admits killing daughter, 14

Home News Tribune Online 10/4/06
STAFF REPORT

UNION COUNTY — A Roselle Park mother yesterday told how she repeatedly struck her sleeping 14-year-old daughter in the head with a hammer and a shovel until the girl finally stopped breathing.

Lynn Giovanni, 46, pleaded guilty yesterday to the 2005 first-degree murder of her daughter before Superior Court Judge Scott J. Moynihan, sitting in Elizabeth.

Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said he was grateful that 14-year-old Nicole Giovanni's surviving family members were spared the ordeal of a trial in a case that traumatized the community.

"The admission by Lynn Giovanni to first-degree murder this morning may begin the closure process in this tragic case," said Assistant Prosecutor Ann Luvera, supervisor of the homicide unit, adding Nicole Giovanni's father agreed with the guilty plea. No specific reason was given for the murder, officials said.

Lynn Giovanni faces a 30-year prison term with a minimum of 25 years before being eligible for parole when she is sentenced on Dec. 1. Family members are expected to address the judge at the sentencing. Lynn Giovanni has been remanded back to the Union County Jail in Elizabeth.

"It's incomprehensible to me how someone could kill a child," Romankow said. "I hope she thinks about what she did every minute for her entire sentence."

Lynn Giovanni, who was 45 at the time of the murder, lived in Roselle Park with her mother and daughter in a quiet middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes a block in from Westfield Avenue.

She was discovered by New Jersey State Police troopers around 5:20 p.m. Feb 6, 2005, in Somerset County in an agitated state after traveling east on Route 78. Officials said she was driving her 2000 red Honda Civic east on the highway and crashed into a guardrail near the Exit 43 ramp, suffering minor injuries.

"There were preliminary indications that the defendant claimed she wanted to take her own life, but the evidence at the car crash scene and the investigation by the detectives working the case revealed a deliberate attempt instead to inflict severe and life-threatening injuries on her daughter," said Robert P. O'Leary, executive assistant prosecutor.

From Overlook Hospital in Summit, where Lynn Giovanni was treated, detectives were led to the mother's two-story home at 146 West Grant St., where Nicole Giovanni's battered and bruised body was discovered.

Lynn Giovanni was charged with murder following an investigation by Roselle Park detective Theodore Dima and Prosecutor's Office homicide detective Bridget Lawrence.

[Admin]

Memorial park dedicated in honor of slain teenager

Nicole Giovanni used to walk up and down her Hory Street neighborhood with her friends, singing Spice Girls songs and searching for suitable locations to dance and giggle the day away. She was a happy girl with plenty of friends and a bright future awaiting her.

Now the young murder victim’s voice, smile and joyful gyrations cannot be seen. They are only memories.

They are warm memories, though, which is why Giovanni’s former neighbors created a memorial park at the corner of Hory Street and West 5th Avenue in her honor. It’s a place where her friends can come to remember their friend “Nikki,” the little girl, not the murder victim.

The memorial park was dedicated Friday afternoon. About 25 neighbors and friends attended.

“My desire was for this to be a happy place to remember Nikki at a happy time on this block,” said Rosalie Fuller, who initiated the memorial park project. “Please use it any time you like and please think of happy memories when you’re here.”



Armando Lamberti, 14, played violin music as a memorial plaque was placed in a bed of flowers. It reads “Friendship Garden. In loving memory of Nicole Giovanni: 2005.”

The park is on a corner that overlooks the West Brook. A path of loose stones leads to a circular flower bed and two benches. A stone birdbath complements the setting.

The park’s construction cost about $1,500, according to Councilman at Large Jamel Holley. It was paid for entirely by local businesses and vendors who Holley helped secure donations from. The dedication brought former neighbors together with new Hory Street residents and young children together with elderly men and women. Three of Giovanni’s friends from her childhood — Dayna Marino, Danielle Marino and Sabrina Kelly — attended the ceremony. It was meant more for her neighborhood friends than school friends, according to Fuller, though school friends are welcome in the park.

Roselle Catholic, where Giovanni was a freshman when she was killed, caters more to her school friends. It has a memorial dedicated to Giovanni on school grounds and a scholarship fund in her honor.



The Marino sisters and Kelly confirmed they have fond memories of singing and dancing their pre-teen days away with Giovanni, but did not wish to comment further.

Some neighbors shared their gratitude with those in attendance.

“I’m thankful we now have a place where we can peacefully reflect and enjoy life,” said Hory Street resident Christine Dansereau.

Some local children have been having picnic lunches at the park and using it for their play sessions, according to neighbors. Those are the kind of “happy” activities Fuller and other organizers hope to encourage at the park.

Giovanni lived on Hory Street for the first 13 years of her life until she moved to her grandmother’s home in Roselle Park with her mother, Lynn Giovanni. She was 14 when her mother entered her bedroom and fatally struck her multiple times on the head with a hammer and shovel, authorities said.

Lynn Giovanni was indicted for murder in late September. Friends and former neighbors said she was in a general state of depression just before the murder occurred and was on medication.

Fuller hopes young people will frequent the park and focus on the positive aspects of Giovanni’s life and not the tragic circumstances that surrounded her death.

“This was for her friends. They were my inspiration for trying to do this,” Fuller said.

[Admin]

Father of Girl Slain by Mom Channels Grief Into New Law


UNION, N.J. (AP) -- Anguish has marked John Giovanni's life since his ex-wife bludgeoned their daughter to death nearly two years ago.

First there was the news of the killing, committed as the teen slept. Then there was the moment he looked into her casket and realized how badly damaged her body was even after morticians did the best they could.

With his ex-wife's sentencing fast approaching, Giovanni now is channeling his grief into the statement he will read in court, and by pushing for harsher penalties for anyone who kills a child in New Jersey.

Nicole Giovanni, 14, was beaten to death as she slept in February 2005 by her mother, who used a hammer and a shovel in the gruesome pre-dawn attack.

"When I had to look in that coffin, I saw the damage,'' her father said last week. "It was horrible. She struck Nicole 12 to
15 times in the back of the head. It was a private service; I didn't want Nikki's friends to see her in that state. No parent should ever have to go through that.''

The girl's mother, Lynn Giovanni, 47, is to be sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison, and must serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for parole under a plea deal she struck with prosecutors last month.

Executive Assistant Prosecutor Robert O'Leary said Nicole's plans to leave her mother and go live with her father played a role in the killing.

"We all speculated it was to get back at dad because she was going to live with him and she wouldn't have any control over her,'' he said.

Neighbors and relatives have said Lynn Giovanni was depressed and dealing with financial problems shortly before the killing.

Her public defender, Peter Liguori, declined to speak on her behalf, saying his client had expressly asked him not to. A message left with her mother, in whose Roselle Park home the killing occurred, was not returned.

The Giovannis were divorced eight years before the killing, and had endured a stormy relationship. She wrote a self-published book under a pseudonym complaining about the court system and accusing her ex-husband of abuse.

Part of the book advocates killing an abusive spouse or partner as they sleep, prosecutors confirmed.

He denies abusing anyone, and said she was verbally and physically abusive to him and Nicole, who was an accomplished student at Roselle Catholic High School and a member of the track team.

"She was bright, articulate, an honor student,'' John Giovanni said. "She had everything going for her. Why she (her mother) took her life, I'll never know. How can you kill a child -- anyone's child, let alone your own child?''

A self-employed contractor, Giovanni has been working for the past month on the victim impact statement he is to read at his ex-wife's sentencing.

"This is beyond cruel and evil,'' he wrote. "Lynn Giovanni brutally slaughtered my precious 14-year-old daughter Nicole. She was defenseless and asleep. Why did you have to kill her? She was only a child! Your child! My child!"

"A part of me died when Nicole died,'' the statement reads. "My heart has a huge void in it that can never be filled. I will never see Nicole driving her first car, graduating from high school and college, starting a career, getting married and having children, and blessing me with grandchildren. I think about Nicole every day and I cry.''

John Giovanni said two weeks before the killing, Lynn called him and said she wanted Nicole to go live with him.

"Lynn said she was having problems with her, that she was running away and that she was nothing but trouble,'' he said.

They agreed that Nicole would move in with her father in two weeks. A week later, she was dead.

John Giovanni is working with several state legislators to get a new law passed that would mandate life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of killing a child aged 16 or younger. Currently, mandatory life sentences are reserved only for those convicted of killing a child in a sexually related assault.

Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union, said he hopes lawmakers will vote on the bill in December.

[gagbry]

i can't imagine as a mother myself what this woman was thinking. i don't know the circumstances here, but losing custody of your child would be a horrible thing, but taken their life & never seeing them again is far worse! this woman is selfish & deserves the death penalty as all murderers do in my opinion!