Second-Degree Murder Conviction Overturned by Court : Man Will Be Tried Again in Death of Stepdaughter, 2

The Orange County district attorney’s office will retry Leland Roy Dellinger, a 34-year-old Orange resident whose 1981 conviction in the slaying of his 2-year-old stepdaughter was reversed by a state appellate court earlier this week, a prosecutor said Friday.

“We think he’s guilty and we’re going to retry the case,” Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright said. The prosecutor had the option of retrying the case, seeking a Supreme Court hearing or setting Dellinger free.

Before retrial proceedings begin, Enright said, his office will petition the appellate court to allow toxicological evidence showing that cocaine was present in the child’s blood, liver and stomach when she died.

“Whatever their decision is on the appellate level, we’re going to retry the case,” Enright said, adding, “We prefer to retry to case with the cocaine evidence because taking it out of the case would not give the jury a total picture of the death of this little girl.”

Dellinger, who maintains he is innocent, was sentenced to 15 years for second-degree murder in connection with the death of the child, Jacyln C. Zilles.

At his trial, Dellinger said the child fell down a seven-step carpeted stairway on May 29, 1979, and injured her head. An initial autopsy determined that the girl died accidentally from a skull fracture and brain trauma.

Toxicological tests completed three months later revealed that a small amount of cocaine was present in the child’s body at the time of her death. Further investigation, including a second autopsy, determined that the death was not caused by the fall.

Crucial evidence came from Dr. Carley Ward, a Los Angeles biomechanical engineering consultant who participated in the investigation.

She testified at the trial that she re-created the child’s fall with a life-size mannequin and used computer-assisted analysis to support her opinion that the child did not die from the fall.

But the state appellate court ruled on Dec. 28 that the prosecution failed to prove that Ward was qualified to give an opinion or that her experiments were generally accepted by the scientific community.