Mission Viejo Youth Who Spotted Stalker Car Hailed

About 90 minutes before the Night Stalker struck in Mission Viejo on Aug. 25, a sheriff’s deputy was “several blocks away” taking a report from a 13-year-old boy who had seen a “suspicious” car now believed to have been driven by the suspect, Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates said Thursday.

However, at the time, sheriff’s deputies had no reason to connect the partial license plate of the orange Toyota given them by eighth-grader James Romero III to the car used in Night Stalker attacks, which previously had been confined to Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, Gates told The Times.

And by 2:30 a.m. that day, when the shooting of Bill Carns, 29, was reported less than a mile from the Romero home, the sheriff’s deputy already had taken a “normal report” from the Romero boy and had returned to routine patrol, Gates said.

Earlier, the patrol deputy had responded within four minutes to the Romero home where the youth had spotted a suspicious car about 1 a.m., Gates said.

Officers Not in Area

“We (sheriff’s deputies) were not in the area of the shooting” when the Night Stalker shot Carns three times in the head and raped his fiancee, Gates told The Times.

James Romero said Thursday that he was working on his motorbike, “thinking of a way to make brakes for it,” in the garage of his home at about 1 a.m. The youth, however, declined to describe what he saw or even if the car was parked or moving when he noted the license plate.

Gates said he would not discuss details of the boy’s sighting of the orange Toyota until after filing the case with the Orange County district attorney’s office today or early next week.

Three days later in Los Angeles, authorities recovered what they believe is the same orange Toyota. Using state-of-the-art techniques, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department found a partial print on the car that matched a print on file for Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez, 25. Within 24 hours of releasing a prior booking photo of Ramirez, the suspect was captured last Saturday by angry East Los Angeles residents.

Declined to Discuss It

“There’s no question James (Romero) provided us with the most important piece of information we received out of 2,000 phone calls” concerning the Mission Viejo attack, Gates said Thursday at a press conference in Santa Ana to commend and reward the youth.

However, the boy, his family and sheriff’s officials refused to discuss details of what James saw or what prompted him to report the incident.

“We can’t answer those questions,” Gates said. “We’re out to make him (James) a hero today.”

Gates said later, however, that the call from the Romero house was only one of two calls his department received before the shooting of Carns and the rape of Carns’ fiancee.

“We received a prowler call and a suspicious incident call,” Gates said, declining to elaborate.

The youth’s identity had been kept secret by authorities for the family’s safety, Gates said. A sheriff’s spokesman said the family requested that reporters not ask them about details of the case.

James said that when he spotted the car and got its license number, “I didn’t really know” its significance.

“I did what I could,” he said. “I just hope other people who see stuff like that report it.”

Gates insisted that “We haven’t coached (the boy) or anything. He asked me: ‘What do you want me to say?’ and I said: ‘You just say what’s on your mind and in your heart.’ ”

‘Very Quiet Family’

“They are a very quiet family and would like to remain that way,” Gates added.

At ceremonies Thursday, Gates called the slightly built teen-ager “the hero of Orange County” and presented the Little Leaguer with an off-road, three-wheel motorcycle and $4,500 in cash from private donors, including Georgia Frontiere, owner of the Los Angeles Rams. Frontiere also provided tickets to Sunday’s opening game at Anaheim Stadium.

The gift of an off-road bike obviously caught the boy by surprise.

“Guy,” was all the boy said as he stepped around television cameras to inspect the vehicle.

“If he was up to 1:30 in the morning working on that (motorbike), he’ll be up to 3 or 4 with this,” said his father, James Romero, 46, a civilian employee at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Also on hand for the ceremonies were the boy’s mother, Emily, 39, and his older sister, Lisa, 16.

The boy, who Gates said “loves camping, fishing and hunting with his father,” is the first person to receive cash rewards in connection with the Night Stalker case, Gates said.

The sheriff added that he has written the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Night Stalker task force recommending that young Romero be given “a substantial” portion of the more than $75,000 in reward money to be dispersed there.

Rewards Listed

“When somebody’s done something good, we like to do something about it,” Gates said. “They are talking about committees” in Los Angeles County to determine how to divide reward money there.

The rewards given to Romero include a $1,000 check from the Sheriff’s Advisory Council, a helmet and “riding jersey” from the Laguna Niguel motorcycle dealer who also discounted the price on the off-road motorcycle and cash donations from anonymous citizens.

But Gates called the motorcycle “the greatest gift of all from myself and all the people in the department.”

Plaques commending the youth described his “bravery and courage” as typifying “citizen-police cooperation and the spirit of America.”

Asked if he felt like a hero, the boy said simply: “Yeah.”

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story.