Lucas to Stand Trial in Knife Slayings of 2 Women and Child

David Allen Lucas of Spring Valley was ordered Friday to stand trial on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with a series of knife attacks on women in Lakeside, La Mesa and El Cajon.

After a 15-day preliminary hearing, Municipal Court Judge Wayne L. Peterson ruled that Lucas should stand trial for the Nov. 20 slaying of Anne Catherine Swanke, 22, and the Oct. 23 killings of Lakeside baby sitter Rhonda Cheryl Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3.

The 29-year-old self-employed carpet cleaner will also stand trial for a June 9 attack on Jody Santiago, 30, of Seattle. Lucas was arrested Dec. 16 after Santiago identified him in a police photo lineup as the man who abducted her as she walked out of an El Cajon nightclub.

On March 22, Lucas will be arraigned and a trial date will be set. Until then, he will remain in the County Jail without bail.

His attorney, G. Anthony Gilham, said he was not surprised his client was held for each of the attacks, because very little evidence is needed to prove probable guilt in a preliminary hearing.

“I don’t see how the judge could have done anything else, based on the evidence presented in the preliminary hearing,” he said.

Gilham said, however, that the evidence may not be strong enough to convince a jury of Lucas’ guilt.

The state will rely heavily on the testimony of eyewitnesses to convince the jury of Lucas’ guilt in the Swanke and Santiago attacks, Deputy Dist. Atty. George W. Clarke said. Clarke was referring to Santiago’s identification of Lucas and the testimony of a man who said he saw a car with a license plate similar to Lucas’ personalized plate at the scene of the Swanke abduction.

Gilham said he intends to prove that Santiago cannot remember who attacked her, and that she initially told police she was attacked by a person she called Angel.

“I think the court would have to agree that Ms. Santiago remembers nothing of her attack,” Gilham told the judge.

As for the license plate seen at Swanke’s abduction, Gilham said the man testified that the car he saw had orange out-of-state plates, and they did not have the exact letters that Lucas’ plates have.

The state hopes to connect Lucas to the Strang and Fisher slayings by showing that Strang and Lucas knew each other well, and that she must have known her attacker since police found no signs of forced entry into her home.

But prosecutor Dan Williams said Strang was a “paranoid door locker.” She was not in the habit of letting people into her house unless she knew them, he said. He also offered testimony from several doctors, who concluded Strang’s throat was slashed by the same person who attacked the other women.

Gilham argued that the state has no evidence linking Lucas to the Strang and Fisher slayings, and that the absence of forced entry into Strang’s home does not automatically imply that Lucas was her attacker.