Slayer of Mother Faces Adult Sentence

A judge Thursday rejected a defense attorney’s argument that his 19-year-old client, who has pleaded guilty in the bludgeoning death of his mother, be sentenced to California Youth Authority instead of state prison.

“I can’t see how the youth authority will do the job,” said Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard G. Kolostian, referring to rehabilitating the defendant, Bruce Lisker. “I had no idea how deep his problem is.”

Lisker admitted last December to killing his mother, Dorka Lisker, 66, in the family’s Sherman Oaks home on March 10, 1983. She was found by police with her right arm broken, and with more than 25 bruises and cuts on her head, torso and hands. Two butcher knives were stuck in her back, deputy coroners said.

Psychiatric Report

Lisker, who was 17 at the time of the slaying, entered the guilty plea of second-degree murder provided that he be sentenced to the California Youth Authority, where the maximum time he could serve would be until his 25th birthday.

But a court-ordered psychiatric report on Lisker strongly recommended last week that the defendant not be sentenced to the Youth Authority. Calling Lisker “unmotivated to change,” the report said the youth’s “potential for violent acting out is high,” according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip Rabichow.

The report, said Rabichow, mentioned Lisker’s fascination with satanic worship and drew similarities between the killing of Dorka Lisker and the slayings described in “Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders,” written by Vincent Bugliosi and published in 1974.

Could Change Plea

Because of Kolostian’s ruling Thursday, Lisker has the option to withdraw his guilty plea to second-degree murder and enter a new plea of not guilty, said his attorney, Dennis Mulcahy.

Rabichow said that, if Lisker does decide to plead not guilty to the slaying, the district attorney’s office is prepared to charge Lisker with first-degree murder.

Kolostian set May 9 for Lisker to decide whether to change his plea. If sentenced, he faces a prison term of 17 years to life.