Even though the police, the district attorney and a jury were
convinced that Morgan Hill resident Daren Campodonica murdered his
wife in 2002, his mother and grandmother are sure he never
committed the crime that resulted in his 40 year prison
sentence.
Even though the police, the district attorney and a jury were convinced that Morgan Hill resident Daren Campodonica murdered his wife in 2002, his mother and grandmother are sure he never committed the crime that resulted in his 40 year prison sentence. He just wasn’t that kind of person, they insist.
“I’m sure it was an accident,” said Barbara Nightingale, Campodonica’s mother. “I don’t know how they can say it was murder; there was no gunshot residue on Daren’s hands and there was on Tarina’s. And the polygraph test he took came out 100 percent (in his favor).”
Nightingale said Campodonica’s family and his attorney have already began preparing to appeal the trial and she has filed complaints against the deputy district attorney and the judge who tried the case. She said the prosecution was built on lies about her son and that he was wrongly convicted of the crime.
“I’m going to do whatever I have to do,” she said.
Nightingale said in a recent interview that her son was really a nice person, not the controlling bad guy the prosecutor made him out to be – a view the jury accepted.
“Daren was very kind as a child, very loving. His father wasn’t much of a dad and that really bothered him; he felt left out,” she said.
The prosecution displayed her son as an angry man who wanted to control his wife, Tarina, during his second-degree murder trial. Campodonica was convicted of the crime on April 27 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for second-degree murder and using a firearm in murder Friday. It was the maximum sentence allowed by law.
“He has never been like that, they got him totally backwards,” Nightingale said.
On the day of Tarina Campodonica’s death, the couple were arguing over extra-marital affairs in the garage of their Morgan Hill home. During the argument, Tarina was shot in the head and died. Campodonica said the shooting was an accident, but the Morgan Hill Police Department and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office believed it was murder.
On the day of Tarina’s death, Campodonica told his mother that he was hugging Tarina because she was having an anxiety attack.
“Daren told me later it was a stupid thing to do,” Nightingale said. “Daren was always one to help people, working on their cars, even Tarina’s sister Pam (Rich). She thought a lot of Daren,” Nightingale said.
Pam Rich said in court last Friday that she was at peace and forgave him for her sister’s death.
Nightingale, who lives in Merced, related a tale of a loving but difficult marriage, one in which her son acted to calm another of Tarina’s sisters, who could be threatening, she said. She said Daren had two affairs, but only after he was hurt by his wife’s cheating.
Deputy District Attorney Ed Fernandez, who prosecuted Campodonica, said the two men accused of affairs with Tarina both denied it during the trial.
Daren’s grandmother, Frances Brooks, said recently that she expected her grandson’s life and marriage to end differently.
“They loved each other and weren’t about to give each other up,” Brooks said.
Nightingale said Tarina knew she had Multiple Sclerosis for eight years and was losing her eyesight, a cause for depression and possibly suicide. Fernandez said M.S. was never diagnosed. However, Tarina discussed having an optometrist appointment with Nightingale the night before her death.
“She was really mad about her eyes and things going on in her marriage,” she said. “She said she didn’t want to live any more.”
Nightingale said she was not pleased with the way the trial was conducted or the behavior of the judge during sentencing last week.
“They didn’t let Daren’s boss testify for him, that he was a good employee for five years and won awards,” she said.
She was happy, though, that her son defended himself on the stand.
“He testified because he wanted them to know what happened. Daren doesn’t lie; he tells it like it is. I can’t see how the DA brings in people who don’t tell the truth, just to win the case,” Nightingale said.
Nightingale claims three of the jurors did not want to convict her son. She said the jurors wrote a note to the judge asking if they could charge him with a lesser crime, without the gun charge that could – and did – add 25 years to the sentence. Navarro agreed, Nightingale said.
“One juror said he couldn’t convict on any crime laid before him and live with himself,” she said. “But the foreman was very aggressive and later the juror voted to convict.”
She said she plans to determine what legal action can be taken about what she believes was problems with the jury’s decision.
Nightingale said she hopes to bring to light a litany of misconduct charges that will prove her son wasn’t given a fair trial in court. It would be difficult enough, she said, if Campodonica had committed the crime, but she knows he’s innocent. It’s just a matter of proving it, she said.
“It used to be you’re innocent until proven guilty, but now it’s guilty until you’re proven innocent,” she said.
