Victim’s daughter testifies in Suffolk murder trial

The afternoon after an East Norwich woman saw her boyfriend crush her mother’s skull with a hammer, she debated whether to get her nails done, she testified Friday in Riverhead.

Shatura Simonée, 29, said she had a number of concerns on Sept. 26, 2013. They included making sure her children didn’t see their grandmother lying dead all day on the living room floor, hoping her boyfriend would get her a racing game for the PlayStation 3 he bought with her mother’s money — and her nails.

Simonée testified for the prosecution at the first-degree murder trial of her boyfriend, Antonio Christian, 28, of Roosevelt. She spent much of the day being cross-examined by defense attorney Steven Wilutis of Miller Place, who accused her of killing her mother, Saundra Simonée, 59.

At one point on the day of the killing, Simonée said she texted Christian to ask if she should get fake nails or have a manicure.

“Because when you killed your mother, you broke one of your nails, right ma’am?” Wilutis said.

Simonée denied that, adding that she broke the nail scrubbing her mother’s congealed blood off the living room floor while Christian dumped the body in Bay Shore. But Simonée testified that she didn’t clean the floor until that night, hours after the discussion with Christian about whether to get her nails done.

She told Wilutis there were no tears and no displays of emotion from her that day — a description that matched the flat affect of her testimony Thursday and Friday. When homicide detectives told her they’d found her mother’s body, she said, “I didn’t react.”

Simonée acknowledged repeatedly changing her version of what happened in the house until shortly before the trial began before state Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen. The changes in the story resulted in a charge of hindering prosecution being added to her guilty plea for criminal facilitation in the case. Instead of serving 4 to 12 years in prison, she now faces 6 to 18 years.

If Christian is convicted, he faces a maximum of life in prison without parole.

Even though Christian killed her mother, Simonée said she continued to send him letters and Christmas cards and hoped they could raise their children together some day.

“You love this man, Antonio Christian,” Wilutis said, standing by his client.

“Yes,” she said, although she wouldn’t look at Christian.

Later Friday, forensic scientist Donald Doller of the Suffolk Crime Laboratory testified that blood spatter found on a table leg and on the floor in the living room indicated that a bloody object on the floor was hit with an object.

That would be consistent with Simonée’s testimony that her mother was lying on the floor while Christian repeatedly struck her head with the hammer.