Prosecutor Removed From Murder Case

A senior deputy district attorney who was charged last year with petty theft was removed by a judge Friday from prosecuting a murder case after defense attorneys argued that he was too emotionally involved in the case of the alleged Cuban hit man to give him a fair trial.

The ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James G. Kolts concerning Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey C. Jonas stemmed from Jonas’ testimony at his shoplifting trial that he was undergoing severe stress due in part to the murder case of Roberto Lopez at the time of the theft incident.

The theft charge against Jonas for allegedly taking $89.50 worth of ties, socks and perfume from the Broadway department store in the Glendale Galleria was dropped last month after a jury deadlocked.

Conflict of Interest

But defense co-counsel Carol Lysaght argued successfully Friday that Jonas now has a conflict of interest in the Lopez case because “he attributed to Lopez part of this frenzy of stress.”

Lopez, 34, faces separate trials in a 1982 drug-related shoot-out in a Glendale motel and in a 1983 drug-related double murder of a husband and wife in Hollywood.

The alleged theft took place one day after Jonas learned that the state Court of Appeal had issued an adverse pretrial ruling delaying Lopez’s trial. And on the witness stand at his own trial, Jonas said he was unable to account for a three-hour period the evening before the alleged theft incident because of his “anger (that) was directed toward the defendants (sic), the courts, what I was required to do, and what I had been subjected to for the last three or four years, including thefts.”

‘Wigged Him Out’

“It’s real clear Jonas had such an emotional stake it wigged him out enough to steal,” said defense co-counsel Leslie H. Abramson.

The district attorney’s office unsuccessfully argued that the defense did not establish a clear-cut conflict-of-interest and that Jonas, when he learned of the Court of Appeal ruling, became agitated at the entire judicial system rather than at Lopez personally.

“We do not agree with the judge’s ruling,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti. “ . . . (But) we accept the court’s ruling and we’ll assign another attorney to the case.”