Hearing Closed on Lucas’ Closed-Hearing Plea

The arraignment of David Allen Lucas on three new murder charges was postponed until Monday after a judge ordered a Friday hearing closed so a defense attorney could argue for a closed-door arraignment.

After three hours of arguments, Municipal Court Judge Laura Palmer Hammes decided that Lucas’ arraignment will be open to the public and the news media, but cameras will not be allowed inside the courtroom.

Lawyer John Allcock, representing the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and two local television stations, called the closed hearing to argue for a closed arraignment “slightly unusual.”

An arraignment is a short and routine hearing where a defendant appears before a judge and enters a plea to the charges against him. Lucas’ arraignment has been postponed twice. He was supposed to be arraigned on Wednesday but Hammes continued it until Friday so attorneys could argue the defense motion to hold the arraignment in secret.

Arraignments are rarely closed to the public and press, but William Saunders, Lucas’ public defender in the new case, wanted Monday’s arraignment closed because he claimed that press coverage would prejudice his client’s case. Earlier this month Lucas was ordered to stand trial for three other slayings after a widely publicized preliminary hearing.

Hammes denied Saunders’ petition for the closed arraignment but granted his request to exclude cameras from the courtroom. After the ruling, Saunders said that the judge had ordered Friday’s hearing closed because she was concerned that facts about the new murder charges would be discussed by the attorneys and reported prematurely by the press.

Lucas is charged with killing four women and two children by slashing their throats with such force that each victim was nearly decapitated. He is also charged with the attempted murder of Jody Santiago, 30, of Seattle, Wash., who survived a slashed throat.

Lucas will stand trial for the slayings in Lakeside of Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, the 3-year-old child she was baby-sitting in October. He will also be tried in the killing in November of Anne Catherine Swanke, 22, a University of San Diego honor student, and the slashing of Santiago. His attorney in the first case is G. Anthony Gilham.

On Monday, Lucas will be arraigned on charges that he killed Suzanne Camille Jacobs, 31, and her son Colin, 3, in their Normal Heights home on May 4, 1979. He also is charged with killing real estate saleswoman Gayle Robert Garcia in Spring Valley on Dec. 8, 1981.

Friday’s hearing was fraught with confusion when Hammes, after ordering the press and public to leave, ordered the media attorneys not to tell their clients what was discussed in the closed session. She later lifted the gag order.

Saunders said he was afraid that extensive media coverage of the new murder charges against his client would prevent Lucas from being tried by an impartial jury.