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Posted: 6:47 PM- On the first day of a trial to determine whether Floyd Maestas should pay with his life for murdering a 72-year-old woman at her Salt Lake City home, jurors heard from a woman who survived a similar attack nearly two decades ago.

Loene Jane Nelson testified Tuesday that Maestas broke into the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home and grabbed her in August 1989. She said he ripped off her clothes, choked her, beat her and stomped on her back.

Nelson said Maestas told her, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want your purse," but he continued beating her until he fled at the sound of her telephone.

Nelson - who said she never forgot Maestas' eyes - was told he would be "put away forever." In fact, he pleaded guilty to a theft charge, she said.

Years later, reading news accounts of the Sept. 28, 2004, slaying of Donna Lou Bott, Nelson said she thought "it sounded just like Floyd Maestas."

Last week, jurors convicted Maestas, 52, of capital murder for beating, strangling, stabbing and stomping on Bott's chest hard enough to rupture her aorta. He was also convicted of aggravated burglary for robbing an 86-year-old woman at her home the same night Bott died.

Presided over by 3rd District Judge Paul Maughan, it is the first death penalty trial held in Salt Lake County since 1996.

For the next two weeks, attorneys will present evidence of Maestas' character, intelligence, upbringing and criminal history - information the jury must weigh to determine whether the defendant should live or die.

Defense attorney David Mack asked jurors to grant Maestas mercy by giving him life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"We are not even asking for life with parole," Mack said. "We are taking that off the table."

Mack said Maestas had a childhood plagued by physical, sexual and substance abuse, along with extreme poverty and violence. He also said Maestas' intellect is below normal.

In sum, Mack said, Maestas is not "an intact human being," which makes him less criminally culpable than someone who is smarter and had a better upbringing.

"When much is given, much is expected," Mack said. "When less is given, less should be required."

But prosecutor Blake Hills told jurors that Maestas deserves to die for Bott's slaying, combined with a lengthy criminal history that includes the 1976 attack on 79-year-old Alinda McLean at her Salt Lake City home.

Retired Detective Pat Smith testified about seeing blood spatter on the walls of McLean's home, pools of blood on the floor and a bite mark on the woman's breast.

Jerrilynn Comollo testified that her grandmother's face was so swollen she was almost unrecognizable following the attack.

Rules against hearsay evidence prevented prosecutors from telling jurors that Maestas allegedly repeatedly raped McLean - who died in 1987 - and that he used a shattered light bulb to gouge out one of her eyes.

The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to continue for another two weeks.