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Paltrow, who read aloud from the letters sent by Dante
Michael Soiu, 67, told the jury she found the messages
"religious to pornographic to threatening", the California wire
agency City News Service (CNS) reported.
Paltrow, 43, said Soiu sent her about 70 letters, a cookbook,
clothing and other items from 2009 and 2014, CNS reported.
"I have a goal to marry Gwyneth Paltrow," one letter said,
according to CNS.
A 2010 letter declared, "You are hopelessly lost," CBS News
reported. "Now you must die. Yourself, must die so that Christ
can have preeminence."
Paltrow, who testified for about three hours, told the court she
feared for the safety of her family and said at least one of the
letters had arrived directly to her Los Angeles home.
Soiu's attorney, Lynda Westlund, told the court he was harmless
and said Paltrow misinterpreted his letters, many of which were
biblical in nature and meant as religious messages to the
actress, CNS said.
Soiu has pleaded not guilty to one felony count of stalking.
This is the second time Soiu, of Columbus, Ohio, has faced trial
on charges of stalking Paltrow. He was found not guilty by
reason of insanity in a 2001 trial.
He spent more than three years in a mental health facility after
the trial, CBS News reported.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
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