Makeup Man Charged With Murder in Bomb Deaths

A 36-year-old film and television makeup man from North Hollywood was charged Wednesday with the weekend bombing murders of two Los Angeles police demolition experts.

The arraignment of Donald Lee Morse, who could face the death penalty if convicted, was continued at the request of his attorney to Feb. 20 in San Fernando Municipal Court, at which time Morse is expected to enter his pleas. In addition to the two murder charges, Morse was charged with two counts of possessing explosives.

Morse consulted with his attorneys, Pierpont M. Laidley and Halvor T. Miller, in a glass-enclosed booth for the short proceeding before Commissioner Charles L. Peven.

The suspect’s brother, Alvin Morse, 34, and sister, Ernestine Enock , 39, who were arrested with Donald Morse on Saturday, were released Wednesday after the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided that it had insufficient evidence to tie them to the officers’ deaths.

However, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dino J. Fulgoni, who is prosecuting the case, said the two remain under investigation.

Detective Arleigh McCree, 46, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad, and Officer Ron Ball, 43, were killed Saturday while trying to dismantle a pipe bomb found in the garage of Morse’s home.

Two such bombs were discovered by police as they searched Morse’s home for a gun they believed was used in the shooting last week of Howard Smit, 74, the business manager of the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Union Local 706.

Morse came under suspicion in that shooting after police learned that he had stormed into the union office a few days earlier to complain about being fined for delinquent dues and that he owned a .38-caliber pistol, the type of gun used in the attack.

Saturday’s search of Morse’s house turned up a .38-caliber handgun, but it was ruled out as the weapon used in the assault on Smit, police said. Smit is recovering.

Morse remains under investigation in that shooting but he has not been charged.

Fulgoni conceded that the case may be “somewhat delicate” to prove.

“Since the bomb was planted in a place where it was not supposed to go off, we’re dealing with delicate legal theories here,” he said. “But we’re very confident that we’re on good legal grounds.”

Fulgoni said it is not necessary to prove that Morse planned the explosion or intended to kill the officers, only that he had “malice aforethought” for someone.

“If I place a bomb at 7th and Broadway, I don’t know who I’m going to kill, but I’m certainly planning to harm someone,” Fulgoni said. Prosecutors also filed two special circumstance allegations against Morse--multiple murders and murder by explosives--that would make him eligible for the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Fulgoni said he did not file the special circumstance allegation of murdering a peace officer, because it is “a little too problematical” to prove that the officers were Morse’s intended victims.

Fulgoni said much of the evidence at the scene was destroyed in the bomb blast, which shot 116 pieces of shrapnel into McCree.

He refused to comment on earlier police accounts that the bomb was rigged to detonate if toyed with.

Morse is being held without bail.