Nurse Identifies Ramirez as Man Who Attacked Her

Pointing directly at Richard Ramirez while holding her other hand over her heart, a 63-year-old Monterey Park woman identified the accused Night Stalker in court Tuesday as the man who handcuffed and raped her last July after breaking into her house in the middle of the night.

“He put a gloved hand over my mouth and a gun to my head,” said the registered nurse, speaking in a steady voice. “He said, ‘Get up,’ . . . (and) he said, ‘Turn around,’ and immediately handcuffed my hands.”

The victim said her assailant rummaged through her house seeking cash and jewelry before sexually assaulting her. She said, though, that the attacker was sexually impotent.

“That’s when I really got scared,” the victim said, “because I thought he’d be embarrassed.”

Ramirez, whose preliminary hearing is now in its sixth week, is charged with rape, sodomy, burglary and robbery in the July 7, 1985, attack. Under California law, sex charges can be filed even if there is minimal penetration. Ramirez also is charged with having murdered a nearby Monterey Park resident--Joyce L. Nelson, 60--that same day.

In all, the 26-year-old drifter from El Paso is charged with 14 murders and 54 other felonies in Los Angeles County in 1984 and 1985.

As the rape victim testified, Ramirez--who on Monday was denied a request to stay in his jail cell during the hearing--alternately smirked, stretched his hands and stared at courtroom observers.

His lawyers, Daniel Hernandez and Arturo Hernandez, said Ramirez’ restless behavior was the result of “physical and mental pains,” which the lawyers attributed in part to a lingering toothache and to the grisly nature of the evidence.

At the end of the day’s session, Daniel Hernandez blasted Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson for repeatedly overruling his objections to questions posed to witnesses by Deputy Dist. Atty. P. Philip Halpin.

“I think he’s taking on a Ferdinand Marcos personality,” Hernandez complained to reporters. “He’s suspending (the rules of evidence) whenever he doesn’t want to hear my objections.”

The Monterey Park woman was the third surviving victim of attacks attributed to the Night Stalker to identify Ramirez in court. In each case, the defense has countered that the identification was influenced by photos of Ramirez that police distributed to the media just before his arrest.

The defense also noted that an initial police report on the Monterey Park rape listed the assailant as being a 5-foot, 9-inch Caucasian. The victim, however, testified Tuesday that she actually had told police that her assailant was at least six feet tall--closer to Ramirez’s height.