Hollywood man who hid roommate’s body in wall gets life sentence

A Broward judge sentenced Charles Moninger on Friday to life in prison after he was convicted this week of murdering his roommate, Julianne Berger, in 2004.

“We have nothing that can be done or said to make life better for the Bergers,” said defense lawyer Arthur Marchetta. “The saddest thing is that I am asking this court to give Mr. Moninger something he did not give Ms. Berger — some degree of mercy.”

But Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes declined.

“I am all for tempering justice with mercy,” she said. “But in this case I can’t find any.”

Family members of the victim had asked for the life sentence. Moninger faced 25 years to life.

“Julie wasn’t treated fairly, and she can’t be here to speak,” said the victim’s brother, Ted Berger, who expressed frustration with a legal process that gave Moninger two chances to win his freedom.

The victim’s mother, Lita Berger, 83, was also present in the courtroom, her hand repeatedly caressing the portrait of her daughter hanging from her necklace.

According to trial testimony, Moninger struck the victim on the head with a blunt object multiple times. After she was dead, he placed her body in a box, placed the box in a closet, and constructed a wall to prevent it from being found.

Investigators found the body on Jan. 23, 2004, roughly three weeks after the victim was last seen alive.

Moninger originally told police that he killed Berger after she woke him in a rage one January morning. During his first trial, in 2008, he took the stand to deny the killing. He was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

But Moninger’s conviction was overturned on appeal because of a faulty jury instruction. The retrial, before Holmes, ended in a second guilty verdict Wednesday.

Holmes heard testimony from forensic psychologist Michael Brannon, who said Moninger, 57, suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. She also heard letters written by the victim’s two sisters, read by prosecutor Vegina Hawkins.

The victim died a “horrific death in her own home,” said Hawkins. “The state is asking this court to please give him the highest sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

Moninger declined to address the judge before the sentence was imposed.

rolmeda@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4457 or Twitter @SSCourts