Witness Says Wilson Confessed to Lawyer : Brother-in-Law of Suspect Testifies in ’83 Costa Mesa Slaying

Just weeks after Jeffrey Malloy Parker was shot to death in 1983, the man now charged with Parker’s murder admitted his involvement to a lawyer, according to court testimony Tuesday.

Richard Dale Wilson, the defendant in the murder case, flew to San Francisco to meet with the lawyer, according to Robert C. Hale, Wilson’s brother-in-law. Hale testified Tuesday that he accompanied Wilson on the trip but said he could not remember the lawyer’s name.

Wilson, 47, is accused of shooting Parker to death on the Costa Mesa doorstep of Parker’s mother, two days before Parker was scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on charges that he had murdered Wilson’s fiancee. Parker had been charged with killing Joan McShane Mills, a 33-year-old San Francisco socialite, during a night of violent sex, drugs and drinking at a Beverly Hills hotel on April 30, 1983.

Accompanied Wilson to Lawyer

Hale, one of the key witnesses in Wilson’s trial in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, said he flew to San Francisco but was there just a few hours. While there, he said he went with Wilson to the home of a lawyer.

“He (Wilson) told the attorney, ‘I did him in’ or words to that effect,” Hale testified.

Although Hale said he could not remember the complete conversation, he said the word “kill” never was used by Wilson or the lawyer.

After Wilson’s remark about Parker’s death, Hale said the lawyer told Hale, “I now represent you also.”

However, Hale told Deputy Dist. Atty. Douglas H. Woodsmall that he had lost the business card that he said the lawyer gave him during the meeting.

Hale also testified that on the day Parker was killed, Wilson had left about noon from Hale’s home in Wilmington in Los Angeles County. He said Wilson returned unexpectedly late that night and made a telephone call to a Frank Hilaire, a friend who had called Wilson at Hale’s home earlier that night.

Hale said he heard Wilson say on the telephone, “I’m finished here. . . . It’s over.”

Wilson was arrested in April, 1987, nearly five years after Parker’s Aug. 2, 1983, slaying. The prosecution, without a witness or physical evidence, is basing its case on the testimony of Hale and Wilson’s older brother, Okiel Wilson of Modesto.

Both said during a preliminary hearing last year that Wilson told them he had killed Parker.

In testimony Tuesday, Hale denied that he had anonymously called Costa Mesa police detectives in 1986 to tell them that Wilson had killed Parker.

He said he called the police because he thought they had information about three burglaries that had occurred at his home.

Hale appeared angry when Woodsmall asked him why he recently asked his neighbors about a May, 1986, visit to his home by two Costa Mesa detectives.

“Did you want to make sure you got the stories right?” the prosecutor asked.

“That’s insulting,” Hale replied. “I’m not going to be called a liar. I’m not going to lie for you or anybody.”