Opening statements begin in Gwyneth Paltrow stalking trial

LOS ANGELES -Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow is scheduled to testify in a Los Angeles courtroom Monday against her relentless, letter-writing stalker Dante Michael Soiu, 66.

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Mr Soiu has pleaded not guilty to one count of stalking. In that preliminary hearing testimony, the investigator said Paltrow cried during their interview and told him, “she was scared of the defendant (Soiu) because she believed that he was obsessed and he wouldn’t stop for anything to try to find her”.

In one of the recent packages Soiu sent Paltrow, he included clothes he wanted her to wear.

“Yes”, Paltrow responded tearfully.

The Avengers star claims Dante Soiu has been harassing her for 17 years, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2000, after allegedly bombarding Paltrow with sexually explicit messages and unwanted gifts.

The recent batch letters described Soiu’s intention to marry Paltrow and also a pair of earrings he sent her in 2009 as a Christmas gift.

Deputy District Attorney Wendy Segall said Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, that Soiu has shattered Paltrow’s sense of security.

She told her security team that she wanted to learn the “bite” and “attack” commands for a guard dog and that “I don’t want him to sleep locked up anymore”, she wrote.

One letter described Paltrow “bowing to death”.

She said the actress had misinterpreted his letters, many of which were biblical in nature and were therefore meant to give her a religious, not threatening message.

He says news of Soiu’s writings always concerned the actress.

During the trial hearing, the actress read aloud from some of the letters, some expressing Mr Soiu’s wish to marry her.

He spent a number of years in a mental institution and was taken into custody again last year (15) after reaching out to the mother-of-two once more.

Sources revealed that the actress, who was dresses in a white turtleneck and black slacks, remained composed in the witness stand, showing concern on her face and wiping her eyes at one point during approximately an hour of testimony. “This has been a very long and very traumatic experience already”.

In contrast, Paltrow told investigator Coleman prior to Soiu’s arrest she was “terrified”, and “feared for the safety of her children”.

“I felt very upset by it. It defied logic, and I found it very, very upsetting”.

Soiu’s current defense attorney, Lynda Westlund, says her client “is not unsafe at all and would not hurt a fly”.

Paltrow won an Oscar in 1999 for her role in “Shakespeare in Love“.

Mr Soiu – who is accused of stalking the actress for 17 years – had denied all charges.

“I’ve been dealing for 17 years with the communications from this man”, she said.

The couple are separated after filing for divorce in 2015.

NGRE/NGRE/AKM-GSI Gwyneth Paltrow arrives via the VIP entrance at Levi Stadium with her son Moses to watch her ex husband, Chris Martin, perform at Super Bowl 50.