Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapper Phillip Garrido was impossible to defend, says lawyer
(CBS/KOVR/AP) PLACERVILLE, Calif. - The public defender who handled the high-profile case of Phillip Garrido said she believes the confessed kidnapper of Jaycee Lee Dugard received an excessive sentence, but said he acknowledged his guilt in the case since the first time she met him.
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Susan Gellman told CBS affiliate KOVR she has received hate mail and death threats since she was assigned to defend Garrido for the highly publicized abduction and imprisonment of Dugard that lasted nearly two decades.
The day she learned of Garrido's arrest, Gellman said she suspected the burden of the case would fall on her shoulders. It would not be her choice.
"I thought... if he gets arraigned in Placerville, it's probably going to be my case," she told the station. "It was my turn for a big case."
Gellman met Phillip for the first time at his arraignment and said he appeared to be distant and distracted from the very beginning.
"It was like he really wasn't there," she said.
It was clear from the beginning that defending Garrido was a virtually impossible task that was made even more difficult due to his belief that a trial would revolve around what he called "the gift from God."
Garrido's attempt to hold events on the UC Berkeley campus to promote his revelations about mental illness and what he believed were his supernatural abilities led suspicious authorities to uncover Dugard's identity, 18 years after she was abducted from her South Lake Tahoe home.
"He would say he acknowledged his guilt from the very beginning and he never wanted a trial. He really thought the whole case was about [his 'gift']," Gellman said. "There was no defense possible."
What shocked Gellman most about the case was the story of how Phillip and Nancy Garrido formed a relationship with Jaycee over time.
"There was a kindness that emerged between the people that were involved," Gellman said. "Probably for Ms. Dugard; it was the way she had of coping."
Nearly two years after his arrest, Gellman said Garrido still isn't interested in speaking out about the case, believing that anything he would say now wouldn't be "received."
Gellman said she's happy the case ended before Jaycee would have had to take the stand to testify about the horrific abuse she endured.
Garrido received a sentence of 431 years to life and his wife Nancy was sentenced to 36 years to life as a plea deal that spared Dugard having to testify.