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Added Murder Trial for Lucas

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David A. Lucas was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder in the deaths of two women and a 3-year-old boy.

Lucas, who is already facing trial on three other murder charges, was ordered by Municipal Judge Herbert Exarhos to stand trial for the deaths of Gayle Roberta Garcia, 29; Suzanne Camille Jacobs, 31, and her son, Colin.

Garcia, a real estate agent, was killed Dec. 8, 1981, in a vacant Spring Valley home that she had been showing to a prospective buyer. The bodies of Jacobs and her son were found in their Normal Heights home on May 24, 1979.

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Lucas’ 12-year-old niece and her stepfather testified at the 12-day preliminary hearing that Lucas was at a birthday party in Santee at the time that Garcia was killed. The party was held to celebrate the girl’s and the man’s birthdays, but Exarhos ruled that there was enough evidence to try Lucas for Garcia’s murder.

Exarhos ordered Lucas to return to Superior Court on Aug. 1 for arraignment and setting of a trial date.

Lucas is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 1 for murder in the deaths of Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3, whom Strang was baby sitting on Oct. 23 in Strang’s Lakeside home; the Nov. 20 death of University of San Diego honor student Ann Catherine Swanke, 22, and for attempted murder in an attack on Jody Santiago, 29, of Seattle on June 9, 1984.

All of the victims’ throats were slashed.

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