Defense in Stalker Case Demands Evidence From Lineup Be Excluded

Testimony from the first surviving victim to appear at the preliminary hearing of Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez was postponed Wednesday when the defense demanded that evidence obtained at a lineup of suspects be excluded from the case.

A hearing on the defense motion, which will continue today, was closed to the public by Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson. The victim, Maria Hernandez, 21, of Rosemead, is expected to begin testifying after Nelson rules on the lineup issue.

Hernandez was allegedly shot in the hand by Ramirez in a March, 1984, attack in which her roommate, Dayle Okazaki, 34, was found dead on their kitchen floor.

As Hernandez walked haltingly into the courtroom Wednesday, Ramirez, who had sat slumped in his chair during much of the day’s proceedings, grew animated and stared intently at her.

Ramirez, 26, a drifter originally from El Paso, is charged with 14 murders and 54 other felonies in Los Angeles County between June, 1984, and his arrest on Aug. 31, 1985.

The defense attorneys, in their lineup motion, contend that evidence obtained at the Los Angeles County Central Jail lineup is tainted because it was obtained “under circumstances unduly suggestive.” Authorities have not disclosed whether Hernandez identified Ramirez in the lineup.

Earlier Wednesday, two expert witnesses testified in the June 28, 1984, slaying of Glassell Park resident Jennie Vincow, 79, Ramirez’s first alleged murder victim.

Under cross-examination, Los Angeles Police Department fingerprint expert Darnell Carter conceded that there was no way to tell whether prints found on a window screen at the scene had been there a day, a month or even a year.

Police announced last year that they had matched Ramirez’s prints to the screen, which they charge he removed to gain entry to the apartment. No testimony has yet linked the prints to Ramirez.