"Evil" Strangler Sentenced to Two Life Prison Terms for Geoghegan Murder

By Anne La Jeunesse

The man who strangled his 14-year-old on-again, off-again girlfriend in the basement of an abandoned mental health clinic in Santa Monica 18 months ago was sentenced Friday to two life terms in state prison without parole plus five years.

Saying Glen "Ballis" Mason trapped Shevawn Geoghegan like a spider does its prey, Judge Bernard J. Kamins levied the stern sentence allowed under California's Three Strikes law, he said, because he wants to insure the 23-year-old killer never leaves prison.

Kamins said the Feb. 24, 1998 murder of the Santa Monica girl was so heinous and required so much evil and lack of consideration that the double life sentence is appropriate.

"This girl suffered. It isn't like a bullet -- it just takes a second to pull a trigger," Kamins said, looking at Mason, who sat impassive at the defense table next to his court-appointed attorney, Marc Lewinstein. "I heard the coroner's testimony -- I don't even have to look at my notes -- on how long it takes somebody to die when they're being strangled."

Kamins likened Shevawn - who was strangled for one minute before she died -- to one of the rabbits that Mason tortured and killed. The investigation found that he slammed one rabbit against a curb and lit another on fire. A decapitated pigeon and a lizard skewered on a stick were found in the county-owned clinic where Mason lorded his self-professed Satanic power over other drifters who lived there in squalid conditions. Shevawn's body was found, wrapped in bedding and concealed under wood pallets, in a corner of the clinic's basement.

Kamins' comments came after emotional testimony from Shevawn's family and friends, including a riveting statement by Shevawn's mother, Eileen Geoghegan, that left many in the courtroom in tears.

Eileen Geoghegan displayed the raw pain of a mother whose only child was violently ripped from her life, as she seemed to draw strength from two hand-made posters featuring photographs of Shevawn at various stages of her life -- a school girl who was the spitting image of her father, a toddler feeding her aunt, Louise Cummings, an ice cream cone and posing with her aunt while clutching a Cabbage Patch doll.

Twisting a crucifix she wore on a chain around her neck, Eileen Geoghegan demanded that Mason look her in the face as she addressed him, alternately weeping and spitting out pent-up rage at the man who murdered her daughter.

"Ballis -- you know that we opened our home to you, you know we tried to help you -- you murdered Shevawn," Eileen Geoghegan said. "You know what Shevawn was to me, you know how much I loved her and you snapped her away from me like she was nothing."

"My love, my life, my sweet, sweet baby girl -- I miss you more than words can say," Geoghegan said, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

Mason looked in her direction as she spoke, lowering his eyes to the table several times, and never visibly reacted to her statements.

Her question to Mason about Shevawn's last minutes of life was chilling and spectators in the courtroom held their breath as she talked.

"I hate you, Ballis, I hate you with every strength I have in me," Eileen Geoghegan said. "I pray you live in the same fear my daughter had.

"Did she say 'Mama?' Did she call me?" she said, breaking down, but straightening up again to yell "Fuck you!" at Mason.

Shevawn's father, Edward Geoghegan spoke next, telling Mason that he really didn't expect the killer to appreciate his emotions, but that he felt compelled to speak for himself and for his wife and the friends and family gathered in the courtroom.

"She's more alive to the people in this room right now than you," Edward Geoghegan said, staring straight at Mason.

Edward Geoghegan said that he would probably think of several other things he should have said after the hearing was over.

"But I'll save them for Shevawn, I have the joy of talking to her every day," he said, returning to his seat beside his wife.

Shevawn's aunt and Mrs. Geoghegan's sister, Louise Cummings, called Mason "a heartless, evil excuse for a man," and said she hoped he spends the rest of his life in prison watching his back.

"You may have taken her last breath, but you did not take her soul," Cummings said.

Several of Shevawn's friends also spoke, condemning him as evil and pathetic and a coward for having snuffed the life out of a 14-year-old girl.

Mason never reacted visibly to any of the statements and never uttered a word during the sentencing hearing.

Before the hearing his attorney argued eloquently, asking Kamins to grant a new trial and also to dismiss the special circumstance of lying in wait, which led to the life sentence.

But Kamins said he had given the arguments much thought and denied the requests. The judge said he knew he had made the correct rulings when he saw a spider lurking on a spider web waiting for a fly.

"The mental health center was a lot like a spider web of rooms and traps," Kamins said. "Mr. Mason was the head of it like the spider."

Like the spider awaiting a fly, Mason lured Shevawn into the dark building and pounced upon her, tying her to a chair and viciously strangling the life out of her, Kamins said.

Toward the end of the hearing, Kamins spoke from his heart as a fellow parent of teenagers. The judge cited Edward Geoghegan's bravery during his desperate search for his daughter as he descended alone into the basement of the clinic, but did not find her body.

He spoke of Eileen Geoghegan's equally desperate search along the Third Street Promenade, a popular hang-out for Shevawn and her friends, who have adopted the punk lifestyle.

"This is a parent's worst nightmare," he said.

Kamins also praised Santa Monica investigators -- detectives Steve Rosenfeld and Bill Brown --, saying they did an outstanding job in bringing Shevawn's killers to justice and treated all witnesses with respect.

Police are often criticized, Kamins said, but are seldom given a pat on the back or thanked when they do a great job.

Elizabeth Mangham, 17, who pleaded no contest to a charge of manslaughter in Shevawn's death, is awaiting sentencing. She will serve 11 years in state prison.

Another man charged with Shevawn's murder, Jimmy Ronald Turner, also known as Dennis Scott and "Linus," is awaiting trial.

Jean Onesti, one of the jurors who convicted Mason of first-degree murder, watched the sentencing hearing.

His sentence, she said, was "more than fair."

Mason's lack of remorse throughout the trial made it easy for her to find him guilty of Shevawn's murder, she said.