Syriani still at the car and still stabbing Teresa. She was still alive, and Syriani stopped his attack, got into his van and left. He drove to a nearby fire station to receive medical attention for cuts and scratches. A fireman testified that Syriani told him that Teresa had assaulted him. The police arrived shortly afterwards and arrested him. Teresa survived for 28 days before succumbing to a 3-inch (8-cm) deep wound in her brain. One neighbour who saw her in the car said that it looked like she had been shot in the face with buckshot. Syriani gives a different version of events, testifying at his trial that he did not block Teresa's path, nor did he intend to hurt or kill her on the night. He said that she scratched at his face when he approached the car and then slammed the car door open onto his leg. He claims to only remember striking her three or four times with the screwdriver. Trial and appeals Before Teresa's death, Syriani was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. This charge was changed to capital murder after her death. On June 12, 1991 he was sentenced to death in Mecklenburg County Superior Court, with the jury finding as an aggravating factor the crime being especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. This outweighed the eight mitigating circumstances they also found. Syriani testified that his wife had hit him almost every day in front of their children and had called the police about him several times. He did admit to hitting her three or four times during their first five years of marriage. The children contradicted him, saying that the marriage was full of instances of domestic violence from both sides. Their middle daughter, Sara, testified in the penalty phase of the trial that during one argument Syriani chased after Teresa with a pair of scissors, in another instance back-handed her while they were in the car and one time threw her down the stairs by her hair. John said that another time, his father threatened Teresa with a bat. Syriani petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that his trial counsel was ineffective and denied him a fair trial. His children said they had forgiven their father and asked that his sentence be commuted. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States was denied in