‘Stalker’ Victim Going to Rehab Center

William Carns of Mission Viejo, who was thought to have been a victim of the Night Stalker, is scheduled for release “within a week” from Mission Community Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

The condition of Carns, who was shot three times, has improved to the point that he can be transferred to a rehabilitation center, Janice Walker said.

“He can’t go home yet,” Walker said, “but if his condition continues on the basis that it has been going, we’re looking at him going to a rehab center within a week once one is selected by the family.”

Doctors have not made any definite decisions concerning Carns’ chances for a full recovery, Walker said.

The Mission Viejo man is eating solid foods and is able to move slowly from his bed to a wheelchair, she added. However, the initial paralysis he suffered on his entire left side has remained, she said.

“He isn’t able to command himself to move the left side,” Walker explained.

Doctors are encouraged, though, that when pain is inflicted anywhere on Carns’ left side, he can “feel it,” she said.

“That’s promising,” Walker said, adding that doctors are cautiously optimistic about Carns’ recovery through rehabilitation because he has sensation on his left side.

Carns, 29, who was once erroneously identified as “brain dead” in a Los Angeles Police Department bulletin, has shown steady improvement since he was taken to the trauma unit at the hospital.

His plight has caught the attention of neighbors and residents in South Orange County and co-workers at Burroughs Corp. Scores of letters from well-wishers have been received at the hospital, some containing money to help defray medical costs, Walker said.

Also, a local pizza restaurant contributed Thursday’s receipts, amounting to $4,600, to help pay Carns’ medical bills, said Robert Roche, a Lamppost Pizza restaurant spokesman in Mission Viejo.

Roche praised the “tremendous” support from the community, adding that it “gives you hope. First we had this Night Stalker thing scaring everyone, and now we’re coming to the aid of one of the victims. It gives you an uplifting feeling.”

Bullet Fragments Remain

Fragments of two bullets remain lodged in Carns’ head, in the back of his neck and in the lower right side of the skull. But the small-caliber bullet fragments pose no danger to Carns and need not be removed, doctors said.

Meanwhile, Richard Ramirez, the 25-year-old drifter born in El Paso, Tex., who is the prime Night Stalker suspect, is expected to enter pleas to one of the killings for which he has been charged in Los Angeles Municipal Court on Sept. 27.

He is being charged with one count of murder and seven other felonies in Los Angeles County.

The charges include murder, burglary, robbery, rape, sodomy and forced oral copulation in the May 14 shooting death of William Doi of Monterey Park and an attack on Doi’s wife.

The Orange County district attorney’s office expects to file charges of attempted murder, rape, robbery and burglary in connection with the Mission Viejo attack.

Ramirez also faces charges for murder, attempted murder, burglary and robbery in San Francisco.

The brother and sister of Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez want him to replace the public defender assigned to his case. Part I, Page 22.