Father Faces Trial in Killing of Suspected Assailant of Daughter

A Panorama City man was ordered Friday to stand trial on a murder charge in the July shooting of a nightclub bouncer who allegedly raped his 15-year-old daughter.

However, a judge dismissed two charges against the girl’s mother: murder and conspiracy to commit murder. She had been accused of plotting with her husband to commit the killing. Van Nuys Municipal Judge James M. Coleman ruled that the prosecution had presented insufficient evidence to show that the mother helped plan the shooting.

Testimony during a one-day preliminary hearing revealed that the father, Raymond Wisecarver, 43, of Panorama City became enraged after learning that the rape suspect, Edward Shreckengaust, 23, of Reseda had been released by police after questioning.

According to testimony, Wisecarver told a friend that he borrowed a sawed-off shotgun from a neighbor, placed it in a suitcase and posed as a magazine salesman when he knocked on Shreckengaust’s door.

Police said he shot Shreckengaust after the victim opened the door.

Single Charge of Murder

Wisecarver was ordered held without bail on a single charge of murder. A second count of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed when the charges against Wisecarver’s wife were dropped. He is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 17 in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Deborah Wisecarver, 36, burst into tears and smiled at relatives in the courtroom audience when the judge dismissed the two charges against her. Coleman ordered that she be released from custody immediately.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert L. Cohen said his office had not decided whether to refile the two charges.

The couple’s daughter, now 16, told police that her mother said her father was so angry about Shreckengaust’s release that he planned to “take matters into his own hands,” investigators testified. The girl also told detectives that her mother asked her where Shreckengaust lived, according to police testimony.

Coleman said, however, that the statements were insufficient to show that Mrs. Wisecarver entered into a conspiracy with her husband.

Report of Rape

The incident began after the girl went to police on July 9 and reported that Shreckengaust had raped her the day before, after the two shared some cocaine, detectives said.

Shreckengaust was detained for questioning on the rape allegation but was released pending further investigation. He was not charged, police said, because the girl gave inconsistent statements.

Deputy Public Defender Mark D. Lessem, who is representing Raymond Wisecarver, argued that the evidence supported nothing more than a voluntary manslaughter charge. If Wisecarver did commit the killing, Lessem asserted, it was done in a fit of rage.