Ex-Wife of Pawnbroker, Lawyer Tell of Shooting

Deanna Stone and Murphy Swain don’t agree on what Victor Pahl said before he shot them at his Fullerton pawnshop.

Stone, Pahl’s ex-wife, remembers Pahl coolly saying, “How would you like this?” as he waved a gun in her face.

Swain, the lawyer helping Stone with her divorce from Pahl, remembers that the exchange was heated and that Pahl told her, gun in hand: “I know how I can take care of this situation right now.”

But despite this discrepancy, the two victims have agreed on most other details in their testimony the past week about what happened on May 8, 1985, the day they were shot. And jurors at the North County Superior Court trial in Fullerton have seen the injuries from that day. Swain has a severe paralysis of his left hand from one of the gunshot wounds. Stone has had to undergo hip surgery and must walk with a cane.

Free on Bail

Pahl, 46, who has been free on $75,000 bail, is charged with two counts of attempted murder.

He has listened calmly during the past five days of testimony, as first Swain, then Stone described the shootings.

Stone, now 26, testified that she had filed divorce papers against Pahl just a few days before the shooting. She and Swain were at the pawnshop with two appraisers taking inventory. Stone says she did not want to “bilk” Pahl but wanted “my fair share” in the divorce settlement.

Pahl was not at the shop when the four began the inventory but arrived a short time later.

Swain testified that Pahl got upset with his estranged wife after she made a comment about who was going to end up with the pawnshop.

Swain said that after Pahl pulled the gun and said something, Stone began running toward the back door. Pahl, he said, cradled the gun in his left hand and got into a crouch position. Then he followed Stone’s movements with the gun like a hunter following a running rabbit.

“I heard a shot, and I heard her scream,” Swain said in testimony last week. “I heard her yell that she was hit, and I heard her hit the floor.”

Swain added that everyone in the store, including some employees, stood paralyzed momentarily. Then they saw Pahl turn the gun back toward them. The two appraisers ran toward the door, and Swain hid behind a display cabinet. When he heard Pahl coming toward him, he lay on his back in a doubled-up position, attempting to protect his body from gunshots.

Swain said Pahl, still in a crouched position only a few feet away, aimed at his head, then lowered the gun toward his chest and fired. As he tried to roll away, a second shot was fired, Swain said.

All eyes in the courtroom--except Pahl’s--followed Swain Monday as he re-enacted in an open space behind Pahl’s chair what he said had occurred in the pawnshop that day.

Pahl gazed down as he heard the divorce lawyer say that his only thought at the time was “survival.”

Pahl’s attorney, William Yacobozzi, said his client has “deep remorse” about the shooting.

His defense is that Pahl was so upset about the divorce that he acted on impulse and could not have intended to kill anyone.

“We’ve prepared him for this testimony (from the two victims), but it’s difficult for him,” Yacobozzi said. “Victor never wanted to hurt anybody.”

Stone said she met Pahl through her sister in 1979, and that they began dating almost immediately.

The first years, she said, their relationship was “very loving, Victor was very affectionate.” She began working in the pawnshop with him, and in 1982 they were married. They had a child the next year, a girl, and separated in 1985 about two months before the shooting.

Yacobozzi said Pahl will testify at his trial, possibly next week.

Both Swain and Stone have civil lawsuits against Pahl over their injuries. Stone also has a civil suit against Swain, claiming that he should not have insisted that she be at the pawnshop with him for the inventory that day.