Lucas Witness Says Another Admitted Guilt

A Kentucky police detective testified Monday that a man once charged with killing a Normal Heights woman and her son told him he was guilty of the 1979 slayings for which David Lucas is now on trial.

Denny Pace of Harlan, Ky., appeared as a defense witness in the murder trial of Lucas, 33, of Spring Valley, who is charged with killing six people in East County and Normal Heights from 1979 to 1984.

Pace told San Diego Superior Court jurors that Johnny Massingale, 33, also of Harlan, told him in 1984 that he was guilty of the May 4, 1979, slayings of Suzanne Jacobs, 31, and her 3-year-old son, Colin.

Charges Were Dropped

Massingale was charged with the killings, but the charges were dropped in 1985 and filed against Lucas after he was arrested on suspicion of killing four other people, using the same method of slashing their throats.

Massingale, who is illiterate and slightly retarded, has repeatedly denied killing the two people and testified in January in the Lucas trial that he did not do it, despite an earlier admission.

Massingale said he was frightened at the time of his arrest and made up the story to satisfy authorities.

Pace said Massingale told him he “went crazy” after being high on “blotter acid,” a form of LSD.

Showed Photograph

Pace said Massingale repeatedly denied to San Diego detectives in 1984 during a five-hour interrogation that he committed the slayings, but then asked to talk to Pace, who had known Massingale’s family for many years.

Massingale admitted his guilt to him, Pace testified.

Pace denied showing photographs of the crime scene to Massingale, but later conceded that he did show him one picture of the Jacobses’ bathroom, where the boy was believed to have been slain.

Pace said Massingale asked him for advice.

“I told him to tell the truth and, if he had committed the murders, to ask the court for mercy,” he said.

Pace acknowledged telling Massingale that he could face the death penalty if convicted, but said on cross-examination by a prosecutor that he felt he had “a legal obligation” to inform him of his possible fate.

“I assured him he would not be convicted of a crime if he did not do it,” the detective said.

Said He Was Sorry

Massingale repeatedly said he was sorry for the crimes, Pace said.

He said Massingale told him that he met a woman named Suzanne in a bar and that they left to go to her home in a taxi.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Williams asked Pace if he considered Massingale “a liar” and someone who would say anything to satisfy a police officer. Pace said he did.

Massingale made money by having sex with other men, Pace said in response to a question by Lucas’ attorney, Steve Feldman.

Also testifying was former Circuit Court Judge Sidney Douglass of Harlan, Ky., now in private law practice.

Douglass said Pace has a good reputation in Harlan County and is a competent police officer.

Douglass, who also served as the city’s prosecutor of misdemeanor cases before becoming a judge, said Pace participated in many “bootlegging” busts of people who were illegally making moonshine.

Lucas is also charged with killing University of San Diego student Anne Swanke, 22; Lakeside residents Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3, in 1984, and Gayle Garcia, 29, in a vacant Spring Valley house in 1981.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.