Defense Lawyers Challenge Linking of ‘Night Stalker’ Crimes

Four weeks into Richard Ramirez’s preliminary hearing, it is becoming increasingly evident that attorneys for the accused Night Stalker are pursuing an unexpected defense tack: Not only are they contending that Ramirez is not guilty, they are also questioning whether there even was a Night Stalker.

Thus far, Deputy Dist. Atty. P. Philip Halpin has presented evidence from 51 police investigators, doctors, medical examiners and witnesses on seven murders allegedly committed by the 26-year-old drifter from El Paso.

And in virtually every case, defense attorneys Daniel Hernandez and Arturo Hernandez have suggested alternate suspects--sons, boyfriends, mobsters, termite exterminators--during Daniel Hernandez’s laborious cross-examinations of the witnesses. Police questioned many of these people but ruled them out as suspects.

The prosecution “hasn’t linked, I don’t believe, one person to all the crimes being charged--let alone connect Richard Ramirez himself,” Arturo Hernandez asserted in an interview last week.

Halpin, for his part, refused any comment on the defense strategy.

The crusty, silver-haired prosecutor said he would let the evidence on the charges--Ramirez is accused of 14 murders and 54 other felonies in Los Angeles County between June, 1984, and his arrest in August, 1985--speak for itself.

Daniel Hernandez acknowledges that he has no proof at this point that anyone else committed any of the crimes attributed to Ramirez. But arduous cross-examination, the pudgy attorney added, is a means of exploring such possibilities. In addition, the San Jose attorney said he may call his own witnesses during the hearing.

For example, in the slashing murder of the Night Stalker’s first alleged victim, Jennie Vincow, 79, of Glassell Park, Hernandez posed pointed questions about the inability of authorities to find and question Vincow’s son, Manny, of Brooklyn, N.Y. Manny, his brother Jack testified in cross-examination, had a history of mental health problems and fights with his mother. Hernandez then questioned Jack himself about his refusal to take a lie detector test.

A Mafia hit was raised as a possible explanation in the double murder of a Whittier couple, Vincent Zazzara, 64, and his wife Maxine, 44, whose eyes were gouged out in a gruesome March, 1985, attack. The underworld theory, the defense noted, was initially raised by a son of the victims, who told authorities his father had ties to the mob, but was eventually dismissed by investigators.

A murderous repairman theory was raised last week in testimony in the brutal beatings of Monrovia sisters Florence Lang, 79, and Mabel Bell, 83, who later died of her injuries.

Police witnesses acknowledged that they found a fingerprint on a partly crushed soft drink can inside the home which did not match those of Ramirez. The defense criticized police for not having compared the prints to those of 10 to 15 repairmen who once labored at the elderly sisters’ hillside house.

“The world is a suspect . . . everyone is a suspect,” said Arturo Hernandez, outside the courtroom, who together with his unrelated co-counsel, have about five years experience as lawyers.

The defense counsel added: “As far as what the evidence has shown up to now in this preliminary hearing, there is no connection to connect one sole person to any two of the crimes.”

Effect of Evidence

Questions about the existence of a Night Stalker--part of an overall strategy that includes establishing a record for possible appeal on legal technicalities and pretrial publicity issues--could quickly collapse if the prosecution is able to present evidence, such as ballistics tests on Ramirez’s .38-caliber and .25-caliber pistols, which would tie Ramirez to several crime scenes.

At this stage, Halpin has yet to offer the bulk of his scientific evidence, saying he prefers to wait in order to accommodate witnesses who would otherwise be required to appear more than once.

Citing a court-imposed gag order, Halpin refused to discuss specific evidence that may eventually link Ramirez to each of the crime scenes.

He did, however, emphasize: “The totality of the evidence won’t be understood until we reach the end of the preliminary hearing.”

In suggesting that different people may have committed the crimes, the defense appears to rely heavily on the seemingly random nature of the string of killings that led to a climate of near-hysteria in Southern California last year.

Variety of Weapons

For months, authorities were on the lookout for a slender, gap-toothed assailant who was said to use a variety of weapons--guns, knives and other weapons--to murder businessmen, retired couples, students, parking lot attendants and grandmothers. The assailant also kidnaped and raped children, they said, and committed burglaries.

All along, police acknowledged that the Night Stalker seemed to follow an indistinct, hard-to-fathom pattern unlike the typical serial killer who preys on a specific group such as prostitutes, or employs the same method of murder each time, such as strangling.

In a “no-Night Stalker approach,” the defense also faces another potential problem. Even if Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson, or a subsequent jury, were persuaded that one man did not commit all 14 murders, they must still be convinced that Ramirez is not guilty of any of the murders. After all, one death sentence has the same effect as 14.

At this point, little evidence directly linking Ramirez to the crime scenes has yet been introduced in the preliminary hearing.

Eyewitness Testimony

Eyewitness identifications, which the defense argues are flawed, have tied Ramirez to the March, 1985, shooting deaths of Dayle Okazaki of Rosemead and Tsai-Lian Yu of Monterey Park.

And last week, police and paramedics testified that pentagrams, apparently drawn in lipstick, were found on Mabel Bell’s thigh and on a bedroom wall in her Monrovia home.

Although no courtroom testimony ties Ramirez to the Satanic symbols found in Monrovia, the lanky, tousle-haired defendant flashed a pentagram inscribed on his palm to the audience at an early court hearing. It was also learned last week that pentagrams have been drawn in his Los Angeles Municipal Court holding cell.

Judge Nelson will rule at the end of the preliminary hearing, which could last another four months, whether Ramirez must stand trial on the charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.