Local News in Brief : 2 Plead Not Guilty in Beating Deaths of 4
A former nightclub owner and his ex-bodyguard pleaded not guilty in the bludgeoning deaths of four people in Laurel Canyon in 1981, a crime described by Liberace’s ex-lover as a robbery-retaliation slaying.
Adel (Eddie Nash) Nasrallah, 59, and Gregory DeWitt Diles, 40, are each charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the slayings that occurred at a hillside home in the fashionable canyon neighborhood on July 1, 1981.
The two entered their pleas Wednesday.
The late sex-film star John Holmes was tried and acquitted of the murders in 1982. He was questioned about them by authorities looking for leads shortly before he died last year of AIDS.
The case was revived when Scott Thorson, the late entertainer Liberace’s former lover, came forward with information while he faced a three-year prison term in an unrelated case. He was sentenced to three years probation last year.
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