Accused Killer’s Lawyer Seeks to Disqualify Judge : Hearing on Judicial Bias Charge Set for Today

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge will hear arguments today on whether to disqualify a San Fernando Superior Court judge from sentencing a convicted robber who has been accused of the ambush killing of a police detective.

Attorney Howard Price, who is defending Daniel Steven Jenkins, has asked that Judge Bruce J. Sottile be disqualified for alleged bias against Jenkins.

Price alleged in his Feb. 3 motion that Sottile, who presided over the robbery trial, was biased because the judge allegedly told police during the course of the homicide investigation that, when Jenkins stared at him in court, it “totally unnerved” him.

According to Price, the judge also received mysterious telephone calls at his home and at the courtroom. “He is now a potential witness and a possible victim in the case,” Price said.

Filed a Response

Price also said that, when the jury in the robbery case informed the court that they had learned of the murder of Thomas C. Williams, a police detective who had testified against Jenkins in a robbery trial in October, Sottile should have questioned the jurors individually instead of taking the foreman’s word that the jury would not be influenced by news of Williams’ death.

“The judge no longer gives the appearance of impartiality,” Price said.

Sottile has filed a written response denying that he is biased against Jenkins. Price and Deputy Dist. Attorney Maureen Duffy-Lewis will argue the motion today before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz.

Jenkins’ motion to disqualify Sottile is a “thinly veiled” attempt to get another judge and perhaps a new trial, Duffy-Lewis said. The best person to issue a sentence is the judge who heard the case, she said.

Jenkins, a 30-year-old Los Angeles resident, was convicted Nov. 1 of the October, 1984, holdup of a North Hollywood theater manager.

Williams, who testified Oct. 31 against Jenkins at the robbery trial, was gunned down the same day while picking up his 6-year-old son from a child-care center in Canoga Park. Jenkins is awaiting trial on a murder charge in connection with Williams’ death.

3 Others Charged

Three other suspects also were charged in connection with the murder.

Investigators said they believe Jenkins, who was free on $16,000 bail at the time of the robbery trial, put out a $10,000 contract on the detective’s life in order to prevent him from testifying. When two people hired to assassinate Williams backed out, Jenkins carried out the killing himself to punish Williams for testifying, prosecutors alleged.

The other defendants have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

If Sottile is retained as the sentencing judge, Price will return to court March 6 to argue another motion he filed Feb. 7 that is designed to disqualify the district attorney’s office from prosecuting the case because of alleged conflict of interest.

In that motion, Price said that Duffy-Lewis received a threatening letter in January purportedly signed by Jenkins and is therefore too emotionally involved in the case to function effectively as a prosecutor.

He asked that the attorney general’s office take over prosecutorial duties instead.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Joan Comparet has filed an opposition to that motion.