In an effort to clear her name and
”
counter what was said in the paper,
”
Nancy and Marc Polizzi sat down with the Free Lance and
addressed her recent court testimony about David Owens’ murder in
2004 in which she spoke about her involvement.
In an effort to clear her name and “counter what was said in the paper,” Nancy and Marc Polizzi sat down with the Free Lance and addressed her recent court testimony about David Owens’ murder in 2004 in which she spoke about her involvement.
Nancy Polizzi adamantly denied having any knowledge of the plot to kill Owens, the true intent of the money she gave the killers, or the violent potential of her stepson and lover, Joshua Joseph. She described being duped by a charismatic young man who she thought had been improving his life after his release from prison.
Polizzi also confirmed she has been placed on administrative leave at San Benito High School where she works as a food service attendant. She said she had told her supervisor about her involvement “long before” the March 27 testimony but that no disciplinary action had been taken.
Polizzi’s involvement with the 3-1/2-year-old murder came to light after she was subpoenaed to testify in the murder trial of Francisco Vega, who ultimately was convicted of first-degree murder two years after the shooter, Joseph, pleaded guilty to two murder counts before his case went to trial.
Polizzi admitted on the stand that she had been in the car when Joseph and Vega bought the murder weapon, that she had provided the money needed for the gun, and that Joseph had told her, “David is dead” weeks before the shooting.
Gun shopping in Fresno
When Polizzi, Joshua Joseph and Francisco Vega took their infamous trip to Fresno, drove to a “seedy” neighborhood and bought a gun, she said she was upset and scared. But she said that when Joseph asked her for $125 in the neighborhood, she didn’t think to ask why he wanted it.
She said Joseph had told her he wanted the money to buy CDs from a store to burn them and return them. Polizzi said she knew Joseph was lying but that she brought the money anyway.
“I didn’t know they were buying anything,” she said. “Prior to leaving to go pick up Frankie, Joshua asked me to bring some money … So I gave my stepson money. I did not knowingly give him money to purchase a gun. I don’t remember who went into that house. Did they come out at the same time? I don’t remember those things. My feeling was, ‘Oh my god – I have this Durango and it’s in this kind of a neighborhood.’
“But I know this: I didn’t see anything in their hands. This is what I thought in my mind: Frankie owed a debt. Joshua paid the debt.”
Request for latex gloves
After driving back to Hollister that night, Polizzi said Vega asked her for latex gloves but that she didn’t have any. When asked about the gloves during the interview, she became upset and threatened to leave before her husband convinced her to stay.
“So yes, he did ask me for latex gloves, and I didn’t say, ‘What for?'” she said. “I didn’t even have any. I don’t use gloves when I wash my dishes. I use gloves when I clean.
“You know what I was thinking about the gloves? I told the police this … I thought: ‘Oh my god.’ Because I knew people in my past who – you wear gloves when you don’t want the scent of something on your hands, and that’s why I started thinking, ‘Oh my god, is there drugs in my house?'”
Marc Polizzi said the state does not have proof of his wife’s involvement in the murder and that any accusations against her are “wild speculations.”
“I feel we are truly innocent to all this planning and conspiracy going on,” he said. “The attorneys can speculate all they want about conspiracies or whatever, but they’ve got no evidence. If they did, they would have charged her.”
A quick turnaround
In her court testimony, Nancy Polizzi admitted giving Joshua approximately $1,000 to start a marijuana business. She admitted knowing the money would be used for drugs but said she also told Joseph the drugs were not to be brought into her house.
“I gave money to my stepson. I did know that the intention was for Frankie to turn the money around fast,” she said. “I also told my stepson that I didn’t want any of that business in my house. If Frankie was going to do that, it was his business, and I didn’t want it in my house.
“I’ve made some very bad mistakes, but the mistake I made was not to have someone killed.”
Deceit and manipulation
Polizzi described Joseph as a troubled boy, that she had hoped to help him get his life on track. Both Polizzis spoke about Joseph attending Gavilan College, working a blue-collar job and getting his gang tattoos removed.
The couple also described Joseph as a master manipulator and said he used positive facets in his life to mask dangerous intentions. They said they were shocked when he was charged with the murder.
“What had happened was, by the time he came into our life Joshua has already gotten in the system,” Marc Polizzi said. “The grandparents had told us, ‘Watch out – he lies and he manipulates people a lot.’ Now, in hindsight, we were manipulated the whole time.”
Nancy Polizzi said since her testimony she has been “under attack” and that her words have been twisted by the media. She said she had tried to be a positive influence on her stepson’s life but that in the end, he used her.
“I was manipulated the most,” she said. “The God’s-honest truth is, I went into that boy’s life, not to be his stepmother, but to be his friend. And at first he was a brick wall, but slowly he opened to me … I loved him because I wanted good things for his life.”
