Marshals at Ramirez Hearing Pull Guns, Order Spectators to Floor When Court’s Lights Fail

Prosecutors say word has filtered through the Orange County Jail that Richard Ramirez, accused of being the Night Stalker killer, “wants to go out in a blaze of glory.”

So when the courthouse lights went off briefly Tuesday during a preliminary hearing for Ramirez--and someone happened to walk in through a back door at the same time--the deputy marshals present took no chances.

Guns drawn, they ordered everyone in the small, pitch-black courtroom to hit the floor. About 40 people in court did so.

The two deputies nearest Ramirez, both of them unarmed for security reasons, grabbed the manacled prisoner and dragged him across the floor to remove him from the courtroom.

“It was pretty scary,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright. “Hell, we didn’t know what was going on. We’ve had these reports that Ramirez has boasted he was going to pull something in the courtroom. We thought maybe this was it.”

Hearing on Charges

Ramirez, charged with 14 murders in Los Angeles County, is in Orange County for a preliminary hearing on charges of attempted murder and rape involving an attack on a Mission Viejo couple on Aug. 25, 1985.

Because of the reports from the jail, security at the hearing before Central Municipal Judge B. Tam Nomoto has been incredibly heavy. Eight deputy marshals have been at the proceedings every day; normally, there is one bailiff, with an extra deputy only if a defendant is in custody. Nomoto has also ordered a metal detector search of everyone entering the courtroom.

Enright said that when the lights went out, he jumped under a table next to the court reporter. It seemed like the lights were off five minutes while the deputy marshals barked orders to everyone to stay down, Enright said.

Actually, it was only about 10 seconds before the courthouse’s backup generator kicked in and the lights began to return.

Still taking no chances, the bailiff ordered people in the courtroom to put their hands in the air for several seconds until officials were sure there were no problems.

The man coming through the door when the lights went out turned out to be another deputy marshal.

Enright was shaken at the time but later laughed at all the excitement.

“There was a group of high school students in the courtroom observing,” Enright said. “Can you imagine the tale they’ve got to tell about their first day in court?”