Officer Says Suspect Led Way to Death Weapon

A Los Angeles Police detective testified Wednesday that an Encino man led officers to a weight-lifting bar used to kill his mother, actress Susan Cabot.

As Detective Philip Quartararo described the events of Dec. 10, 1986, Timothy Scott Roman--charged with bludgeoning his mother to death at her Encino home--sat expressionless in a Van Nuys courtroom, head bowed, eyes cast downward.

Quartararo’s testimony came during a hearing before Superior Court Judge Richard G. Kolostian to determine what evidence should be allowed at Roman’s trial.

The detective said Roman, 23, was quiet, calm and cooperative during an interview at the West Valley police station several hours after the slaying. Roman gave specific details about the slaying, which he blamed on a Latino burglar wearing a Ninja warrior mask, Quartararo said.

Roman was coherent and controlled and cried occasionally during the interview, the detective said.

After talking with him, the police arrested Roman and took him to Humana Hospital-West Hills to determine whether he was under the influence of drugs or on medication, Quartararo testified.

It was at the hospital, Quartararo said, that Roman lost control. “He started hyperventilating and crying,” Quartararo said. “Then he would stare into space and not say anything. Then he would hyperventilate and cry.”

Police later drove Roman to his house to retrieve medication he said he needed, Quartararo recalled. It was there that Roman directed detectives to the murder weapon, he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford Stone said the weight-lifting bar was in Roman’s bedroom. It had Roman’s fingerprints on one end and Cabot’s blood on the other, Stone said.

Roman’s attorney, Chester Leo Smith, has filed a motion to prevent prosecutors from using anything Roman told detectives and any evidence found at the murder scene before the defendant called his attorney--even though police said Roman was read his rights and agreed to talk without legal counsel.

The motion argues that Roman’s statements and his signature on a consent form allowing police to search the house should be disregarded because he was not mentally competent at the time.

Court documents state that Roman was the victim of a failed medical experiment that treated dwarfism with injections of growth hormones taken from cadavers. Smith said his client would have grown to only about 4 feet tall, but, with the aid of growth stimulants, reached 5 feet, 4 inches.

The experimental program, administered by the National Institutes of Health, was discontinued in 1985 after some patients developed a fatal neurological disorder.

Smith contends that the hormones aggravated brain damage that his client was born with.

Cabot, who was 59 at the time of her death, was a leading lady in B movies of the 1950s. Her films include “Fort Massacre,” “Ride Clear to Diablo,” and “Duel at Silver Creek.”