Murder defendant on jail phone call: 'What I did was not intentional but there were benefits'

TAVARES — Ian Anselmo, convicted of strangling his pregnant stepmother at a Eustis cemetery, should get the lightest possible sentence because he was under the “cult-like” influence of his father’s “Mafia-esque Anselmo Code,” his attorney has argued in a court filing.

The 26-year-old was also suffering from major depressive disorder and PTSD, and his medication was disrupted, causing a drug withdrawal with “anxiety, irritableness, hopelessness, negative thoughts, and despondent behavior,” Richard Hornsby noted in the motion filed on Friday.

Anselmo was scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, but Assistant State Attorney Nick Camuccio submitted a recording of a jail phone call that he says shows a lack of remorse and flies in the face of a lighter-than-guideline sentence.

"What I did was not intentional but there were benefits," Anselmo said in a phone call to his father. He also said he was not solely responsible for the death of the unborn child because Sue-Ellen was taken off life support.

Circuit Judge Brian Welke cleared the courtroom so Hornsby and Anselmo could listen to the tape but agreed to a defense delay until Sept. 27 so he could hear more conversations.

Gone was Anselmo's long, flowing hair and beard. He now sports a buzz cut.

Anselmo pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a jury in April convicted him of second-degree murder and causing the death of an unborn child.

The 2019 slaying horrified Lake County residents, especially in Eustis, where 39-year-old Sue Ellen Anselmo was a popular hairdresser. She left her husband of 13 years, John Anselmo, when her adult biological daughter, DeJah-Thoris Waite, told her that John abused her when she was living at home. He denied it.

She moved in with Waite, taking five minor children with her, setting off a firestorm of separation anxiety. “This belief, rationally based or not, had all the children, including Ian Anselmo, in a constant state of worry, and fear for their siblings,” the motion states.

John and Ian alternately begged her to come back or accused her of infidelity and mental illness, including trying to kill herself.

Finally, Sue-Ellen agreed to meet Ian at Greenwood Cemetery, near the family home, on March 13 at the gravesite of a beloved parish priest, but she told John she was wary.

“Ian told me he wants to skin me alive and cut out my intestines and strangle me with them. He said he has no problem telling me he hates me. I don’t know what to believe.”

The next day she was dead, with Ian sobbing and shouting incoherently in a 911 call. “I accidentally killed someone. Please!”

The aspiring professional wrestler had broken her jaw and strangled her with his bare hands and a phone cord.

Persons found not guilty by reason of insanity must not be able tell right from wrong or cannot appreciate the consequences at the time of the crime. Dueling mental health experts rendered their opinions.

The state’s expert disagreed with the defense opinion that Ian was insane but conceded he suffered from numerous psychological disorders. She described John’s hold on the family as a “cult-like syndrome” and said: “Ian doesn’t have his own thoughts, everything he thinks and believes is filtered through his dad.”

Hornsby is arguing that Ian had a “diminished capacity” to refrain from harming Sue-Ellen.

Family testimony depicted Ian as a “child in a man’s body,” who talked to his toys, and watched cartoons or old TV shows. He has a Mensa IQ and is possibly on the autistic spectrum. He published a book and was going to go to the University of Central Florida.

The children are homeschooled, are not permitted to leave the property, have friends, get a driver’s license when old enough or have their own phones.

Waite’s stepsister attacked her at an informal gathering at her mother’s’ grave, held because John and children kept removing flowers from the burial plot. Nico Anselmo, now an adult, admitted in her testimony that she “was trying to take her eyes out.”

“Crazy, crazy, crazy!’ Hornsby said of the family dynamics.

Judge Welke had ordered a presentence investigation. Anselmo could be sentenced up to life in prison.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Murder defendant on jail phone call: 'What I did was not intentional but there were benefits'