Husband defends Bluff
Jury likely to decide murder case today

Ferosa Bluff smiled at her estranged husband Thursday as he took the stand to testify on her behalf.

It's the most emotion she has shown during her murder trial for allegedly torturing her 3-year-old daughter, Rebecca, to death last year.A jury was expected to decide today whether Bluff, 27, and her friend, Andrew Fedorowicz, 46, are guilty of murder, a first-degree felony; child abuse, a second-degree felony; and sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

Neither defendant took the stand before both sides rested Thursday afternoon.

Bluff and Fedorowicz maintain that Rebecca died after falling down stairs the day before paramedics found her dead and severely bruised Oct. 21, 1998, at their apartment, 1287 E. Vine Gate Drive (6150 South). But three medical experts testified Wednesday the amount of bruising that literally covered the girl's body was more consistent with torture than falling down carpeted stairs.

Prosecutors say the pair used several leather whips and straps found at the apartment to produce the injuries that resulted in the girl's death.

Thursday, Todd Bluff painted Ferosa Bluff as a loving, dedicated mother incapable of causing the type of bruises that killed Rebecca.

"There's no question she loved this child," he said, adding she would rather be hit than let someone else hit her child.

Todd Bluff said that after seven years of marriage, he and Ferosa decided to separate in the summer of 1998. In early fall, she and her two young daughters, Rebecca and 2-year-old Sarah, moved from their home in Mountain View, Alberta, Canada, to live with Andrew and Suzanne Fedorowicz at their Holladay apartment.

Todd Bluff kept in touch with his wife and daughters over the phone but had no idea anything was wrong until Rebecca died. When he arrived in Salt Lake City, he requested to see photographs that showed the severe bruising Rebecca suffered.

"Those were a new experience," Todd Bluff said. In his years with Ferosa Bluff, he had never seen her strike the children in anger. The most he ever saw her do is "swat" them on the bottom with a hand or a "loosely rolled flier out of newspapers so it would make a sound."

Todd Bluff described his wife as a woman slow to get excited or emotional, even under stressful circumstances.

During their last summer together, a girl was severely injured after crashing her car in front of their house, he said. He and Ferosa went out to help, and throughout the experience she was "very calm, very collected."