LA GRANDE — Union County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Powers sentenced a La Grande man to life in prison on Friday, April 25, after a jury convicted him of murdering his girlfriend in May 2022

Mamas Genagritis, 56, will serve a life sentence for killing Deanna Badgley.

“I do sentence you to life imprisonment,” Powers said.

The jury deliberated for 30 minutes on April 21, after the prosecution and defense presented closing arguments. Jurors unanimously found Genagritis guilty of second-degree murder.

Members of the jury also found Genagritis’ did not establish the defense of guilty except for insanity due to a mental disorder.

Under Oregon law, a defendant who raises specific arguments called affirmative defenses during trial “has the burden of proving the defense by a preponderance of the evidence.” This means that the defendant must prove the claim is more likely true than not.

Genagritis raised two of these defenses at trial — extreme emotional disturbance and guilty except for insanity. The jury did not find either to be true.

Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel prosecuted the case for the state. Attorneys James Schaeffer and Jeffrey MacNeilly represented Genagritis.

Powers said the murder conviction comes with a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Genagritis will, however, be eligible to seek parole in 25 years.

Closing arguments

During her closing, McDaniel once more took jury members through the “incredibly bloody, violent scene” of Badgley’s murder. How she was laying in bed watching television in her bathrobe and socks before Genagritis struck her more than 40 times in the face with a hatchet.

How Genagritis pulled Badgley from the bed to the floor, where the evidence suggests she suffered “separate, distinct attacks.”

How Genagritis dragged her down the hallway where he struck her seven more times with the hatchet.

“What is the first thing we know about this crime?” she asked. “The defendant, Mamas Genagritis, did it.”

McDaniel also spoke to the case the defense raised during trial — calling it a “kitchen sink defense” that asked the jury to follow “a bizarre flowchart” from extreme emotional disturbance and guilty except for insanity to serotonin syndrome, low sodium levels, post traumatic stress disorder and lack of sleep.

She walked through the evidence the state’s witnesses had provided to refute the claims.

Ultimately, she said, this was not a case of delirium as the defense argued, but a situation of Genagritis’ own making.

“The bottom line is the defendant killed Deanna Badgley in rage,” McDaniel said.

In his closing arguments, Schaeffer once more chronicled Genagritis’ increasing medical issues and mounting anxiety, which started in October 2021 and escalated in the months and days leading up to Badgley’s murder on May 23, 2022.

He walked the jury through the opinions of mental health experts the defense called at trial to speak on Genagritis’ mental state — detailing serotonin syndrome, hyponatremia, PTSD — and diagnosis he received while undergoing restorative services at Oregon State Hospital — unspecified schizophrenia.

Schaeffer argued Genagritis was in a state of delirium and experiencing a psychotic break at the time of Badgley’s murder.

“I implore you to look deeper at this case,” he said

He asked the jury to explore “the why” behind the murder and what was going through Genagritis’ mind at the time.

During rebuttal, McDaniel said there was a key problem with the defense experts — they accepted information from Genagritis with “blind faith.” She added they concocted their defense and then looked for evidence to support it.

“This is not a case of mental illness,” she said. “It is a case of rage and reaction.”