Accused killer’s phone had search for child molestation punishment
Five days before the triple murder at his neighbor’s house, accused killer Jonathan Sander used a “burner” phone to search the penalties for child molestation — the allegation that had already deepened his feud with the Mazzella family next door.
The death penalty case against Sander entered its seventh day Tuesday with a deep examination of the cellular phones found near the scene where three members of the Mazzella family were shot to death in 2016.
A long string of texts, voicemails and phone videos showed tensions between Sander and business partner Sandy Mazzella intensifying to the point that recordings of The Gap Band’s 1982 hit “You Dropped the Bomb on Me” were repeatedly blasted from Mazzella’s house into the Sanders yard outside Wake Forest.
Sander and his wife, Lori, filmed the recordings, which sometimes showed people dancing in Mazzella’s driveway and garage. They added commentary such as “White trash” and “You hear this crap?”
Evidence throughout the trial has shown that a dispute between the neighbors began over their shared landscaping and lawn care business, then escalated when an underage member of the Mazzella family sent a text saying Sander had inappropriately touched her in the recent past, an episode she had been afraid to mention.
The Mazzellas obtained a no-contact restraining order that they were unable to make permanent. After Sandy Mazzella was shot inside his home along with his wife and elderly mother, Sander’s tracfone was recovered nearby. After the shooting, Sander told deputies both that he had blacked out and that he had reached a breaking point.
One of the internet searches pulled from it showed someone called up a website called childmolestationlaws.com and looked for the penalties a conviction might bring.
The trial marks the second death penalty case in Wake County this year, an increasing rarity in North Carolina. On its first day, a handcuffed Sander lashed out at Sal Mazzella, his former partner’s father, while Mazzella was weeping on the witness stand during testimony.
The messages recovered from the various phones at the scene show Sander’s messages alternating between obscene rants and laments that the families had drifted apart.
The texts were cordial as late as Feb. 24, 2016 — a month before the killings — as Sander asked Mazzella how he was feeling and regretted that they seldom spoke. But a message sent one day later said, “PS me and Lori fooled around with your wife.”
Several videos shown to the jury showed Sander and his wife filming their neighbors from the driveway, saying the time and date out loud and explaining that they were protecting themselves. In many of those videos, The Gap Band is playing at high volume.
But later Tuesday, ex-employee Gene Autrey said Mazzella called him a month before his death to say Sander had threatened him and that he was afraid.
Autrey said he suggested they have target practice at his home in Franklin County, and Mazzella agreed, bringing his parents, brother-in-law and children along about a week before the killings.
Autrey testified, though, that he did not consider Mazzella capable of violence. As an example, Autrey said he once went to a racetrack with Mazzella and got in a fight with another man, holding a knife to his belly. Witnessing this, Autrey said, Mazzella said he didn’t think he could do that.
On the day the Mazzellas were killed, Autrey said, he was to supposed to help them move.
“Did you go over to his house that day?” asked Assistant District Attorney Melanie Shekita.
Autrey looked down and appeared to choke up. He shook his head.
“It didn’t feel right.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 3:02 PM.