Accused in Slaying Over Pacific : Murder Suspect’s Bid for Federal Prosecution Fails

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the district attorney’s office can prosecute Donald DiMascio on murder charges, despite the defendant’s claim that he is accused of a crime occurring in an airplane outside California’s jurisdiction.

Attorneys for DiMascio, 35, of South El Monte, contended that the prosecution’s evidence shows the 1982 murder of Scott Campbell, a 27-year-old Anaheim man, occurred on a small plane near Catalina Island, beyond California’s three-mile territorial border.

But Judge Everett W. Dickey agreed with prosecutors that California can claim jurisdiction over any crimes that occur in the channel between the coastline and Catalina, 26 miles away.

Ruling Appealed

Dickey added that even if DiMascio were right about the three-mile limit, he still could be prosecuted under California law because the state has “a real, continuing and legitimate interest” in the crime that doesn’t conflict with any federal government interests.

DiMascio’s attorney appealed Dickey’s ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeal two hours after it was issued.

Prosecutors claim that DiMascio and Larry Cowell, 38, a longtime friend of Campbell, left Fullerton Municipal Airport with Campbell in a rented plane on April 17, 1982, purportedly for a business trip. Then, prosecutors say, they killed him and threw his body into the ocean 2,000 feet below.

Both Cowell and DiMascio allegedly admitted to an Anaheim police undercover agent, in conversations secretly taped, that Cowell had flown the plane while DiMascio strangled Campbell.

Prosecutors claim the motive was to rob Campbell of both money and drugs.

Cowell was convicted of first-degree murder in a non-jury trial in January. But Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin threw out a robbery allegation, eliminating the prosecution’s pursuit of the death penalty against Cowell.

Seeking Death Penalty

But prosecutors are still seeking the death penalty against DiMascio, who is free on $250,000 bail. They claim that DiMascio’s secretly taped statements are more incriminating about the robbery motive than Cowell’s.

The jurisdictional issue is important to DiMascio. If he eventually should win on that point, the case would have to be turned over to the federal government. And the federal government has not sought a death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1978.

Also, DiMascio’s attorneys believe the U.S. attorney’s office would not pursue the case as vigorously as county prosecutors.

“I think they’re convinced if they can get this case away from our jurisdiction that the federal government might just let the thing fall through the cracks,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Goethals.

Dickey postponed DiMascio’s trial, scheduled to start this week, to Oct. 10.

Campbell’s parents, Gary and Collene Campbell, attended Monday’s hearing.

“I keep thinking it will get easier to come to court, but it doesn’t,” Collene Campbell said.