Military Prosecutor Asks Dismissal of Marine Murder Charges

A military prosecutor Friday requested that murder charges be dismissed against El Toro Marine Gunnery Sgt. Murray D. Payne, who is accused of murdering his wife and making her death look like a suicide.

Capt. Paul McBride, the prosecutor, said autopsy results were not conclusive enough to prove that Ella Mae Payne did not commit suicide. However, the investigating officer, who functions as a judge in this military version of a preliminary hearing, decided against dropping the charges until the investigation is completed.

In the meantime, Payne’s commanding officer ordered the Marine released Friday morning. Payne, 40, has been detained in the brig at Camp Pendleton since Dec. 1.

The military hearing, which began last Thursday at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, is held to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a court-martial of Payne.

Payne and the couple’s 22-year-old son, Darrell, discovered the body at 4 a.m. last May 10, hanging from the garage rafters of their Corona home.

“I guess we’re over the hump now,” said Kevin McDermott, Payne’s attorney. McDermott cited the testimony of Dr. Dewitt T. Hunter, the Riverside coroner who conducted the initial autopsy on Ella Payne and declared the death a suicide, as instrumental in the request that charges be dismissed.

Hunter testified Friday that before the autopsy, he “would have placed homicide at the top of the list of the possible options,” especially because of the complexity of the knot used in the hanging. However, the autopsy proved his initial belief incorrect, he said.

“I went to unusual efforts to assist in differentiating between these two forms of death,” Hunter said.

The coroner said he was looking for evidence to prove foul play in the death, but found none.

Richard Allen Bogan, an investigator with the Riverside County coroner’s office who was at Payne’s home the night the body was found, testified Friday that he had several suspicions regarding Ella Payne’s death.

Bogan said he not only thought that it was unusual for the 39-year-old woman to wear jewelry with her nightgown, but he also questioned the knot in the rope.

“(I was) kind of stunned that someone would go through so much trouble to hang themselves,” he said.

However, Bogan testified that forensically nothing he was aware of could be linked to homicide.

Two months ago, Bogan and Hunter amended the statements on reports in the Riverside coroner’s office, listing the death as a suicide. Ella Payne’s death certificate was also amended to list suicide as the cause of death.

During a break from Friday’s hearing Payne said he is not sure where he will live permanently but was glad to be free.

“Now I can go out to lunch and have a nice dinner,” he said.

“It’s going to be nice to be outside of here.”

Both the defense and prosecution are continuing their investigations in Payne’s case and are uncertain when the hearing will end.