Pawnbroker’s Trial to Begin in 2 Shootings

For Victor and Deanna Pahl of La Habra, it was, at best, an unpleasant divorce.

A few hours after Victor Pahl was served with divorce papers on May 3, 1985, Deanna Pahl’s attorney was at his Fullerton pawnshop ready to take inventory.

Three days later, again at the pawnshop, police said, Victor Pahl shot his wife and her lawyer. Both have recovered, but they claim to have suffered permanent injuries in civil suits each has filed against the 46-year-old pawnbroker.

Pahl is scheduled to go on trial today in Orange County Superior Court on charges of attempting to murder of his former wife and her lawyer. Pahl’s attorney said he will present jurors with the most traditional of defenses used when a husband or wife shoots a spouse: She drove him to it.

“In the mind of Victor Pahl, his wife manipulated, schemed, lied and essentially caused a mental explosion in him,” said his attorney, William Yacobozi Jr.

‘Were the Same Enemy’

As for the shooting of the attorney, W. Murphy Swain of Orange, Yacobozi said: “I think our psychiatric testimony will show that, to Victor, his wife and her attorney were the same enemy.”

Pahl faces a possible sentence of more than 14 years in prison if convicted on both counts of attempted murder. But the pawnbroker’s attorney said he will try to convince jurors that Pahl could not have intended to kill anyone and will seek to get the verdict reduced to attempted manslaughter, which could cut the maximum possible sentence by half in case of conviction.

Pahl--who claims to be a believer in psychic forces, who is always bedecked in jewelry and medallions and who wears long hair and hippie clothes of the 1960s--has continued to operate his cluttered, sprawling pawnshop at Harbor Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue in the heart of Fullerton. But for the first 11 months after the shooting, he had to fight his estranged wife in divorce proceedings from the Orange County Jail.

When his bail was reduced from $750,000 to $75,000 in April, 1986, Pahl posted bond and returned to his old seven-day work week in an effort to restore his business, which had not done well in his absence, Yacobozi said.

“Victor loved that pawnshop,” said one close friend of Pahl’s, who asked that her name not be used. “He is extremely remorseful about the whole thing. I think it stunned him that he was capable of such acts.”

According to court documents, the Pahls had a short but stormy marriage.

They had a beautiful home in La Habra Heights and a lot of money. Pahl told a Los Angeles Times reporter in 1982 that he was a millionaire, primarily because of his successful pawnshop.

He was an antique car collector, and court records show that the couple owned two Rolls-Royces, a Cadillac, a van, a Jeep and a handful of other vehicles. They also owned a vacation home at Big Bear, an apartment, a houseboat and a motor home. Early in the divorce proceedings, Pahl listed his net income at more than $10,000 a month.

According to friends, the couple fought over money and also about Victor Pahl’s habit of working long hours, seven days a week. At one point, his wife reportedly accused him of hiding money from her.

“They’d been arguing about a lot of things,” Yacobozi said.

Deanna Pahl, then 24, moved out of their home in March, 1985, taking their 1-year-old daughter with her.

Pahl claims that just a few hours before he was served with divorce papers on a Friday, Deanna Pahl was on the telephone with him telling him that she wanted a reconciliation, something he longed for.

But her lawyer, Swain, arrived at the pawnshop that same afternoon, according to court documents, with an appraiser and three police officers. All of this coming on what he thought was to be a day of reconciliation apparently left Pahl surprised and upset, his attorney said.

On the following Monday, when Pahl was away from the shop, Swain showed up again. This time he had Deanna Pahl with him. Victor Pahl has claimed that he rushed down to the pawnshop after a worker called him to tell him what was going on. The gun used in the shootings was one he had kept behind the counter in case of a robbery.

While Yacobozi technically has not admitted at this point in the legal proceedings that his client was even the man who pulled the trigger, he conceded: “That fact is going to come out very quickly at the trial.”

Yacobozi said he believes Deanna Pahl’s threats to take over the pawnshop in the divorce hit his client the hardest. “Most of us have a breaking point,” he said. “Here, we believe Mrs. Pahl purposely sought out and pushed the breaking point of Mr. Pahl.”

Since the shooting, there have been accusations all around. Both Swain and Deanna Pahl sued Pahl for damages over the shooting. Both claim they suffered emotional distress and permanent physical damage.

Deanna Pahl was shot once. Swain, who is now 30, was shot three times--in the arm, leg and abdomen. Swain has since resumed his Orange County law practice.

Swain could not be reached for comment, but a close friend said Swain “will always have a problem with his hand; he has permanent paralysis.”

Deanna Pahl and Swain were reportedly good friends at the time of the shooting. But she ended up suing Swain, too, claiming that she didn’t want to go to the pawnshop, but that Swain had talked her into it. Yacobozi quoted her in one of the depositions in the civil suit as telling Swain that day: “Let’s get out of here” before her estranged husband could arrive.

At last count, there had been nine lawsuits filed in the case, some against the lawyers involved, some against the pawnshop and one against a business partner of Pahl’s, Yacobozi said. At one point, Pahl listed $55,000 in legal fees among his debts.

The pawnbroker has a lawsuit in mind, too. If Pahl is acquitted, Yacobozi said, he will seek custody rights to see his daughter.

Pahl has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. If jurors convict him of attempted murder, the trial would move into a separate phase to decide on his sanity at the time of the shooting.

A major part of the defense in both phases will be testimony by court-appointed psychiatrists, Yacobozi said.

Most male defendants, even those coming to court from the Orange County Jail, appear before jurors in a coat and tie. But Yacobozi said there is little sense in trying to get Pahl to change his unorthodox dress style.

“I might try to tone him down a little, maybe cut back on the jewelry,” said Yacobozi, adding: “I wouldn’t even try to get him into a coat and tie.”