AIDS Blamed for Murder, Witness Tells Police

Murder suspect Robert Martin Gray Jr., told a former employee that he wanted to kill 24-year-old Debbie Anne Lee because she had given him AIDS, the ex-employee has told police, according to court documents.

Robert Estrada also told Garden Grove police that he had helped Gray dispose of the body of the Garden Grove woman, who has been missing since Aug. 1, documents filed in Orange County Superior Court state.

Gray, 30, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in West Orange County Municipal Court to a murder charge and faces a preliminary hearing Sept. 16.

Estrada, who worked at Gray’s stereo shop in Garden Grove for seven months, told police that his former employer was convinced that he had contracted the invariably fatal acquired immune deficiency syndrome from Lee--even though Gray was told by physicians that he does not have the disease, Garden Grove police investigator Ronald D. Shave said in a sworn statement.

Estrada told police that Gray had planned to dispose of Lee’s body in a grave in a remote area of Orange County, but Gray became nervous and dumped her body near a freeway ramp and left Estrada by the roadside.

When Estrada returned to the site with police, the body was gone, according to court documents.

Estrada said Gray allegedly told him that if police did not have a body, “they didn’t have a case against him,” according to Shave’s statement.

Estrada has been “sent away” to an undisclosed location, although he is not in protective custody, police said on Wednesday.

Municipal Judge Marvin G. Weeks set the preliminary hearing for Gray, who remains in custody at Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.