South Jersey softball star Nicole Ayers' survivors want her killer sentenced to life

Before he was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a South Jersey softball star, Stephen Headley had violent clashes with family members and confided to a close friend that he had homicidal fantasies, state police reports say.

The reports are part of a 21-page legal brief Burlington County prosecutors filed with a judge to persuade him that Headley should get a life sentence.

Until now, a possible motive has not been publicly discussed in the two-year-old murder of Nicole Ayres, a softball pitcher who was All South Jersey as a Deptford High School student and 2007 Atlantic 10 rookie of the year while at Fordham University.

The Westville Borough woman, 22, was stabbed 36 times in the face, neck, torso, and an arm with a pocketknife at a Southampton soccer field in the early hours of Sept. 13, 2010. She died of a fatal wound to her carotid artery.

Police said she knew Headley, 30, of Florence, through the friend Headley had confided in and had agreed to meet him at a convenience store in Medford when he texted her shortly after midnight.

Authorities said that they didn't know the reason for the meeting and that, though Headley is a registered sex offender, there was no evidence Ayres was sexually assaulted. They also said she did not have drugs or alcohol in her system.

The case recently drew renewed attention when family and friends of the victim raised an outcry after state Superior Court Judge James W. Palmer Jr.'s said he was inclined to sentence Headley to 30 years without parole if he pleaded guilty to the murder. Headley took the plea.

Thirty years is the minimum for murder, but Ayres' family and friends and the prosecutor want him sentenced to life in prison.

On Wednesday, the judge reversed himself and set a trial date, saying he felt 30 years was insufficient after reviewing the case files, numerous letters from the victim's supporters, and the prosecutor's brief.

In the brief, Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor John Brennan said Headley's "close friends and family members paint a picture of a ticking time bomb - of a man who daydreamed of homicide; a man who visited violence upon his own family - his mother and his sister. . . . These dark thoughts and violent rages came to the forefront when defendant killed Nicole."

Brennan said the close friend of Headley's told police of the accused's gruesome "fantasies of killing people and fantasies of cutting people's faces off and wearing them as skin."

He said Headley's mother told police her son had pulled out her hair on one occasion, and his sister said he had punched her so hard in the mouth she needed wires to hold her teeth together.

Cedric Edwards, Headley's public defender, said his client had issues with his family and had been raised primarily by his grandmother. He also said Headley's friends were "embellishing" their stories. "If he had all these homicidal thoughts," he said, "why are you hanging out with him?"

Other than a learning disability and depression, Headley did not have other psychological problems, he said.

Kellie Lando, Ayres' cousin, said Ayres' family believed Headley should be imprisoned with no chance of "ever coming out. . . . We see him as the monster he is and the predator that he is," she said, referring to Headley's 2004 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child. Headley was listed as a registered sex offender after he admitted kissing and fondling an 11-year-old girl at a skating rink when he was in his 20s.

Ayres also said Headley should get life because he "brutally stabbed Nicole" repeatedly and left her body in a field.

State Sen. Diane Allen (R., Burlington) met with Ayres' family and said she stood with them in their belief that Headley's crime warranted a harsher sentence than the minimum.

Allen is a longtime champion of victims' rights and the author of a law requiring those convicted of violent crimes to serve 85 percent of their sentences without parole. She said she was pushing "a couple of different bills that would make sure that people who do the unthinkable are kept away from society forever."

Lando said an online petition containing more than 5,800 signatures and numerous letters were submitted to the judge to advance their cause.

Generally, a life sentence means a convict is eligible for parole after 57.5 years. Only in murders involving children or law enforcement officers can a convict be imprisoned without any chance of parole.

Assistant Prosecutor Brennan said judges have discretion to decide whether a convicted murderer should receive the minimum 30 years or the maximum of life after weighing aggravating and mitigating factors.

In this case, he said, Headley's record, his propensity toward violence, and the danger that he might commit another crime were all aggravating factors.

Edwards said he had not filed a brief for the defense with the judge. He said he would discuss with Headley the possibility of going to trial or negotiating a new plea.