Wilson Defense Asks Dismissal in Slaying Trial

The murder trial of Richard Dale Wilson, charged with gunning down the man accused of killing his fiancee, was delayed Thursday to give the prosecutor time to counter a defense motion to dismiss the charges.

Defense attorney Joel W. Baruch filed the motion to dismiss the murder charge when it was discovered that handwritten police notes had not been given to the defense by the prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas H. Woodsmall.

Woodsmall told Orange County West Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas that he had seen the defense motion, but needed until Monday to reply in writing.

The prosecutor, however, said the notes written by two Costa Mesa police detectives who investigated the murder of Jeffrey Molloy Parker in 1983 were not significant. Although Woodsmall would not say what the notes contained, he would “not acknowledge at this point that it has created a problem.”

Baruch, however, contends that the notes by former Costa Mesa detectives Mike Millington and Clyde Foreman are important because they shed light on violent crimes Parker might have committed against other women before his encounter with Mills.

The notes were not given to the detective, Dan Hogue, who later took over the case from Millington and Foreman, but were included in police files. Hogue is expected to testify Monday during the hearing on the defense motion to dismiss the murder charge against Wilson.

Under the law, all police investigation files and items collected as evidence must be submitted to the defense before a trial.

Slain at Mother’s Home

Wilson, 47, a San Francisco accountant, is accused of the Aug. 2, 1983, murder of Parker, who was shot twice at close range in front of his mother’s Costa Mesa home.

At the time of his death, Parker was awaiting a preliminary hearing for the murder of Wilson’s fiancee, Joan McShane Mills, a San Francisco socialite.

Parker allegedly killed Mills in April, 1983, after a night of violent sex, drinking and drugs. He was found standing over her body at a Beverly Hills hotel. An autopsy later revealed that Mills suffered 12 fractured ribs and a punctured lung. Her face was also badly bruised and several teeth were broken.

Wilson was arrested in April, 1987. The prosecution, with no physical and eyewitness evidence to present, is basing its case against Wilson on the testimony of his brother and brother-in-law, who both claim that the defendant told them he had killed Parker to avenge Mills death.