Judge Orders Gray to Trial in Killing of Ex-Girlfriend

Robert Martin Gray Jr. was ordered Thursday to stand trial in Orange County Superior Court on charges that he murdered his one-time girlfriend, Debbie Ann Lee of Garden Grove, who has been missing since Aug. 1.

Gray, who is charged with killing Miss Lee and disposing of her body, kept his eyes downward as West Orange County Municipal Judge Floyd H. Schenk spoke. Gray, who was handcuffed and in jail clothing, then spoke briefly to his attorney, nodded to a family friend in the courtroom and was escorted out by marshals.

Schenk set a Sept. 29 arraignment date in West Orange County Superior Court. Until then, Gray will remain in custody on $250,000 bail.

According to the prosecution, the unusual case stems from a violent argument Gray had with Miss Lee. Although the woman has not been found, friends testified during Gray’s preliminary hearing that he wanted to kill her and her boyfriend, Fidel Del Rio, because Gray was convinced that he had contracted AIDS from her. Gray has been examined by doctors, who found no evidence that he has been infected with the AIDS virus.

Gray was ordered arraigned despite his attorney’s argument that the prosecution’s evidence was weak and largely circumstantial.

“I don’t believe the evidence presented in the case here is sufficient for him to be held to answer (the charges),” said Gray’s attorney, Bruce C. Bridgman.

Bridgman said he hopes to prove his point and his client’s innocence when the trial begins.

Prosecutor Jeoffrey Robinson countered that the circumstantial evidence is “very strong.”

Robinson noted the testimony of Robert J. Estrada, Gray’s former employee and a key prosecution witness, who testified that he helped carry Miss Lee’s body from Gray’s trailer to his pickup the night she disappeared.

She had bruises on her body and had a hole in her left cheek that looked like a bullet wound, according to Estrada. At Gray’s insistence, Estrada said, he helped Gray dispose of her body in a remote Orange County area, where they started digging a grave. But Gray became wary that people were watching, so they put the body back into the pickup and left, Estrada said. Gray then dumped her body near a freeway ramp and left Estrada by the roadside, the former employee said.

Estrada hitchhiked to a telephone and called his parents, who drove him back to Garden Grove, where he notified police, he said. Police found bloodstains near the freshly dug grave and a white belt near the freeway ramp that was identified as belonging to Miss Lee.

In court Thursday, Bridgman attempted to discredit Estrada, who has been described as having a low IQ and, by his own admission, being unable to read or write.

During cross-examination, Estrada conceded that he originally lied to police when he told them that Gray had forced him to help by pointing a gun at him. But Estrada said he later recanted the statement voluntarily because he did not want to lie to police and wanted to protect himself from being charged as an accomplice.

Throughout the hearing, Estrada seemed to have difficulty understanding the proceedings, and on occasion both attorneys have had to repeat and simplify crucial questions.