Boy Says Pearce Kept Raising Ante for Killing

A 15-year-old Escondido boy Tuesday accused a teacher’s aide of approaching him and a friend four times to solicit the slaying of her estranged husband, with the pair eventually agreeing when the offer grew to $100,000 and two cars.

The youth said Roberta Pearce at first promised $2,000 for the slaying, but increased the offer substantially during subsequent meetings to entice the teen-agers to kill Robert (Wayne) Pearce.

“She asked me if I wanted to make some money . . . then she told me how I could make some money by killing her husband,” said Isaac Hill, one of two Orange Glen High School students who pleaded guilty last week to the slaying.

Hill and Anthony Pilato, also 15, admitted in San Diego Juvenile Court on Friday that they used a hatchet and a kitchen knife to slay Wayne Pearce, 40, outside his Cardiff apartment Jan. 31 as he left for work. The pair inflicted about 50 wounds on the stocky construction superintendent before they fled.

First Day of Preliminary Hearing

Testifying on the first day of Pearce’s preliminary hearing, Hill told a packed crowd at Vista Municipal Court that he and Pilato initially refused the woman’s entreaties, but relented when the offer grew too sweet to pass up.

Sitting with his hands folded and head cocked slightly, Hill delivered his dramatic testimony in an unemotional monotone, keeping his eyes fixed on Deputy Dist. Atty. Tim Casserly, the chief prosecutor in the case.

Hill said that Pearce, a popular teacher’s aide for students with learning disabilities at Orange Glen High, told them she was worried about losing “half of everything she had” in the pending divorce, in particular her sprawling, tile-covered house in Valley Center.

“She would just say she didn’t want to move into an apartment,” Hill said, suggesting that Pearce, 41, wanted her husband dead before the divorce was final March 1 so she could also collect $200,000 in life insurance.

Hill said he first met Pearce through Pilato in mid-January, and the pair subsequently spent several days at the Valley Center house.

Court documents say the home was frequented by numerous youths during the month before the killing, including another 15-year-old boy who has told homicide investigators he was sleeping with Pearce.

‘Wasn’t Friend, Wasn’t Enemy’

“She wasn’t a friend and she wasn’t an enemy,” Hill said, adding that the house was “someplace I could get what I wanted,” including a car Pearce had rented for the youths to use.

The woman brought up the issue of her ebbing relationship with Wayne Pearce several times, Hill said. Eventually, she asked the pair into her bedroom, where Pearce offered $2,000 for them to kill her husband, Hill testified.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Hill said, adding that he finally decided not to do it at that price.

Pearce persisted, however, and asked the boys again the next day, this time raising the ante to $6,000 between them, but again both said no, Hill said. A day or two later, he said, Pearce asked a third time, offering $10,000. Nonetheless, both boys refused, Hill said.

Boys to Get Cars

Finally, the next night, Pearce jacked her offer up to $100,000, to be split between the two boys, and threw in her two used cars, Hill said. Pilato was to get a 1972 Corvette the couple owned and Hill would get their blue Lincoln, he said.

“I said I’d do it,” Hill told the hushed courtroom, which was jammed with his schoolmates from Orange Glen as well as family members and Wayne Pearce’s relatives from Illinois.

Hill said he never met the construction worker before the slaying. Roberta Pearce, however, pointed out her husband’s apartment and his firm’s Vista headquarters during tours of the area in her car in the days before the slaying, he said.

The testimony was cut short by day’s end before William Fletcher, the attorney representing Pearce, had an opportunity to question Hill.

Fletcher could not be reached for comment after the hearing, but has consistently stressed Roberta Pearce’s innocence, arguing that she did not take part in soliciting the slaying of her husband.

Hours of Questioning

Before Hill took the stand on Tuesday, Fletcher spent several hours questioning Jeffery Piceno, 19, an acquaintance of Hill and Pilato who was with them the evening of the killing.

Piceno said he accompanied Hill and Pilato when they drove to a street in Escondido and stole a truck, which investigators have identified as the vehicle driven by the killers.

Later, he and a 15-year-old boy picked up the pair at a Carlsbad shopping mall after they returned with blood-splattered clothing and skin, Piceno said.

His testimony was cut off, however, after Judge Suzanne Knauf advised Piceno that he was making statements that might incriminate him in a crime. A private defense attorney, Charles Duff, was called in to advise Piceno. Duff repeatedly cautioned Piceno to use his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer certain questions.

Compromising of Rights

Eventually, Fletcher requested that the judge reject all Piceno’s testimony, arguing that the staunch refusal of the prosecution witness to answer most of the questions was compromising Pearce’s Sixth Amendment rights.

Knauf agreed to consider the request, but delayed a decision until this morning so prosecutors can research the issue and possibly draw up arguments.