Woman Points to Ramirez in Courtroom as Her Assailant

Pointing across the courtroom at the shackled Richard Ramirez, a 21-year-old woman calmly identified the Night Stalker suspect Tuesday as the man who shot her in the hand last year at her Rosemead residence.

It’s “the young man in the blue (jail uniform),” said Maria Hernandez, the first surviving victim to testify at Ramirez’s preliminary hearing, which began last week.

Hernandez’s roommate, Dayle Okazaki, 34, was shot in the forehead and died in the March 17, 1985, attack at the condominium they shared.

In her nearly day-long testimony, Hernandez gave dramatic details highlighting her own narrow escape from death.

Her silent assailant fired from close range at her face, she said, but the bullet struck her raised hand and a set of keys she was holding.

The assailant confronted her a second time after she fled, Hernandez added, but he did not fire after she cried out, “Please, don’t shoot me again.”

Defense attorneys, during subsequent cross-examination, attempted to call into question her identification of Ramirez at a lineup shortly after his arrest in East Los Angeles last August.

Ramirez, 26, a drifter originally from El Paso, Tex., is charged with 14 murders and 54 other felonies in a brutal series of attacks between June, 1984, and his arrest.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson will rule at the conclusion of the hearing, which could last several months, whether Ramirez should stand trial on the charges, for which he could be sentenced to death if convicted.

Hernandez, speaking firmly, testified she was shot moments after returning at 11:30 p.m. from visiting her boyfriend in Arcadia. After parking her car, Hernandez, an office worker, said she heard a noise in the garage and “saw a man . . . he was pointing a gun at me.”

The assailant said nothing, she testified, but moved toward her, and she put her “hands up for protection.” She then heard a shot and “felt a cross between pain and heat on my right hand.”

If the bullet had not been deflected by a key, Deputy Dist. Atty. P. Philip Halpin said later, Hernandez may have suffered far more severe injuries.

Hernandez fell, but saw the gunman enter the condominium. She then ran out to the front of the building and heard a noise inside--apparently her roommate being shot. She said she saw her attacker leave by the front door.

He confronted her again, she said, and she pleaded with him, “Please, don’t shoot me again.” He heeded her plea and ran, she said.

Entering the condominium, Hernandez found Okazaki, a traffic supervisor with Los Angeles County, dead on the kitchen floor.

Little Emotion

As the witness described her tragic discovery, Okazaki’s sister, seated in the courtroom audience, began sobbing. Ramirez, however, showed little emotion, keeping his eyes closed at times.

The defense later attempted to show that Hernandez’s identification of Ramirez was a result of her later exposure to media pictures of the Night Stalker suspect.

Hernandez acknowledged that a composite drawing of the assailant that she helped police prepare does not resemble Ramirez. She also said she thought the attacker was “average” height, about five feet, ten inches tall. Ramirez is more than six feet tall.

White Mark on Head

Additionally, she said, Ramirez was the only person with a white mark on the back of his head during the lineup. She conceded that she had known when she attended the lineup that Ramirez suffered head injuries when apprehended.

However, Hernandez insisted that at the lineup, “I said to myself that is the man who shot me.”

Following the day’s session, defense attorney Daniel Hernandez called the witness’ identification of Ramirez “very weak.”

Halpin, meanwhile, said the testimony “establishes Miss Okazaki was murdered and Miss Hernandez identified the defendant.”

AC/DC Fan

Two police witnesses called by Halpin late in the day said they found a dark blue baseball cap bearing the logo of the rock band AC/DC in the condominium garage while investigating the shooting.

Ramirez, informants told police after his capture, had been a fan of the rock group, particularly its 1979 “Highway to Hell” album, which included a song “Night Prowler.”

Sheriff’s Detective Gil Carrillo also testified that Hernandez attended two other lineups prior to Ramirez’ arrest. The victim did not positively identify either of two other suspects at these lineups, Carrillo said.

One of the lineups included a 25-year-old Highland Park man, who was arrested last July as a suspect but was released three days later after long interviews with detectives.