Gloomy Ramirez Wants No Defense in ‘Stalker’ Case, His Attorney Says

A gloomy and “emotionally distraught” Richard Ramirez wants to forgo any defense, even an opening statement, in the so-called Night Stalker trial despite the advice of his lawyers, one of Ramirez’s attorneys said Wednesday.

“I think he (Ramirez) thinks that it won’t do any good,” Ray G. Clark said Wednesday in explaining why he and co-counsel Daniel V. Hernandez have told Judge Michael A. Tynan that they may present no defense case when the trial resumes on Monday.

Between now and then, Clark said in an interview, he and Hernandez will attempt to change their client’s mind, and hope to elicit the help of Ramirez’s parents toward that end.

Case law is not entirely clear on whether defense lawyers may go ahead with a defense over a client’s objections in a death penalty case, and Clark said he has been consulting with the State Bar’s Ethics Committee and the California Appellate Project, which provides assistance to lawyers handling such cases.

“But my understanding is that we have the right to have an opening statement and call witnesses, and he (the defendant) has the right to testify or not testify,” Clark added.

Until last Monday, Ramirez had been prepared to go along with his attorneys’ plans to present a defense, including calling about a dozen witnesses on his behalf, Clark said. But Ramirez then began “wobbling and sliding back,” he said.

“He has a tendency to cut things short,” Clark added. “He says he’s tired of being in jail, the food is bad, etc.”

Clark said Ramirez became so upset that he staged a “shouting match” while meeting with his attorneys in a holding cell during a trial recess earlier this week.

At a private meeting Tuesday afternoon with Tynan and prosecutors Phil Halpin and Alan Yochelson, Clark told the judge that Ramirez “doesn’t want us to make an opening statement,” and therefore the lawyers must consider resting their case without mounting a defense whatsoever.

The prosecution rested its case on Tuesday after three months, and the defense lawyers were to have begun their case, starting with an opening statement today. But Tynan granted Clark and Hernandez a recess until Monday so they could further consult with one another and with Ramirez and his family.

‘Go for Victory’

Clark, who was appointed by the judge in March to help with the defense, said he very much favors a vigorous defense. “My position is: Hey, let’s try to win this--go for victory on as many counts as possible, or all of them. But I’m keeping an open mind.”

Ramirez is charged with 13 murders and 30 other felonies in a wave of night-time attacks throughout Los Angeles County, most in the spring and summer of 1985.

Since his serial-murder trial began Jan. 30, six survivors have identified Ramirez as their attacker, and prosecutors have presented a mass of incriminating evidence, including firearms results, shoe prints, fingerprints and jewelry linked to Ramirez that other witnesses have said were taken from the scene of seven of the 15 alleged Night Stalker attacks.

Last month, Clark had said the main thrust of the defense would be to show that Ramirez has been a victim of mistaken identity.

It is not unheard of for criminal defense lawyers to mount no defense and instead simply to argue to a jury that the government has failed to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.