Transient to Face Murder Trial in Drug Overdose of Benefactor

A transient who was living in his car until an Arleta woman took him in two years ago was ordered Tuesday to stand trial in her death.

San Fernando Municipal Judge James E. Satt said there was enough evidence at a preliminary hearing to try Marshall Deerwester, 24, in the Oct. 11 death of Retha Terry, 73, of Arleta.

Deerwester is charged with one count of murder with two special circumstances--death by poisoning and murder for financial gain--that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted, Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi said.

Dr. William Sherry of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office testified that Terry died of a drug overdose. But her ribs were broken, and she had a black eye when he examined her body, he said.

Ervin Youngblood, a Los Angeles Police Department investigator, testified that Deerwester told him that he had knocked Terry to the ground twice Oct. 8 after she threatened to evict him.

Youngblood said Deerwester told him that he gave Terry a fatal dose of painkillers three days after he knocked her down because the ailing woman said she would commit suicide to end the pain if it were not against her religion.

But, when Terry changed her mind later that evening and told him she wanted her stomach pumped, Deerwester did not call an ambulance, Youngblood testified. He quoted Deerwester as asking, “Why should she continue in pain when she would be with Christ in the next few moments?”

Maurizi said Terry was killed because she had made preparations to cut Deerwester out of her will. Terry had made Deerwester the beneficiary of her $150,000 estate shortly after he moved in.

But Maurizi said Terry had filled out a form during a seminar on estate planning that indicated she had changed her mind.

Terry met Deerwester and his brother about two years ago at the First Baptist Church of Arleta, Maurizi said. The brothers were living in a car near Hansen Dam at the time, the prosecutor said.

Deerwester’s brother, Matthew Scott Deerwester, was also taken in by Terry but was out of town at the time of the killing.

Terry gave the two a room in exchange for light housekeeping, said First Baptist Pastor Frank D. Ward, who said he opposed the arrangement, but that “it was a noble, Christian thing to do, and I hoped it would work out.”