2 Guilty in Bludgeon Murder of Woman Face Death Sentence

Two men with criminal records dating to their teen-age years were convicted of first-degree murder Friday in the beating death of an Orange woman.

The defendants, Duke K. Bolter, 33, of Santa Ana and Daniel Leroy Hikes, 26, of Anaheim, could be sentenced to death. Jurors will return Aug. 1 to hear testimony and make recommendations of either death or life in prison without parole.

The victim, 29-year-old Patricia Ann Clayton, was found dead in a bedroom closet of her apartment on Feb. 24, 1987. Medical evidence showed that Clayton had first been beaten in the hallway, then dragged to the closet and beaten again.

“We are asking for the death penalty because of these men’s criminal pasts, and because this woman’s death was just so incredibly brutal,” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Edgar A. Freeman.

He attributed their arrest to “some fantastic police work” by Mike Colver, an Orange County sheriff’s deputy.

Colver saw Hikes and Bolter pull up to a liquor store on Crown Valley Parkway about noon on Feb. 24 in a bright red Mazda sports car. According to arrest reports, Colver recognized Hikes, whom he had known when Hikes was in County Jail.

It struck Colver as odd that Hikes would be in a car like that, so he decided to investigate.

Prosecutors contend that Hikes and Bolter were casing the liquor store for a possible robbery when Hikes spotted Colver and began running. Bolter, who had gone inside the store, ran too.

After police caught them, they routinely checked the registration of the sports car and determined that it was Clayton’s. When they went to her apartment, they found her body.

She was last seen alive by a neighbor on Feb. 22, entering her apartment with Bolter and Hikes.

Blood found on Hikes’ pants when he was arrested matched Clayton’s blood type. Neither defendant made statements to the police, and neither testified at the guilt phase of their joint trial.

It was found that Bolter and Clayton were friends. Prosecutors say she met him through his girlfriend, who had picked him up when he was released from state prison on Feb. 6, 1987. That was just about two weeks before Clayton’s death.

Evidence showed that Clayton had turned to prostitution to feed a drug habit, and that when Bolter’s girlfriend went to jail in Los Angeles County, Bolter became friendly with Clayton.

“The tragedy is, she was just about to turn her life around,” prosecutor Freeman said. “She had met a really solid guy, and they had made plans to put her in (the hospital) to help her get free from drugs.”

The evidence shows that she was beaten with a wooden club, but the weapon was never found.

At the penalty phase of the trial, Freeman will present evidence of the criminal histories of Hikes and Bolter. Both have been to state prison several times for robberies, assaults and drug-related crimes.

Hikes faces the most damaging evidence. Freeman said that he will show that Hikes and several of his brothers were convicted of a vicious assault. Also, prosecutors claim that in 1982, Hikes was responsible for the death of the 11-month-old daughter of the woman with whom he lived.

Hikes was never convicted in the baby’s death. But Freeman said information that investigators turned up after the pair’s 1987 arrest convinces him that there is evidence to link Hikes to the baby’s death.

At a penalty phase, a jury may consider such evidence, even if the defendant was never convicted in that crime, if the jurors are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was responsible.

Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride has ordered a hearing to determine whether prosecutors should be allowed to introduce the evidence on the baby’s death at the penalty phase.