Girl Testifies That Pearce Discussed Plans to Kill Estranged Husband

An Escondido girl befriended by Roberta Pearce, a teacher’s aide accused of hiring two teen-age boys to kill her estranged husband, testified Friday that the woman discussed the murder plot with her half a dozen times.

The 16-year-old girl, who lived with Pearce during the month before the Jan. 31 slaying of Robert (Wayne) Pearce, also said in court that the woman provided drugs and X-rated videotapes for a cadre of teen-agers hanging out at the house.

Testifying in the fifth day of Pearce’s preliminary hearing, the girl said the popular teacher’s aide at Orange Glen High School in Escondido had a continuing sexual relationship with Frank (Soddy) Rodriguez, a 16-year-old student at the high school charged with helping to plot the slaying.

Boys Pleaded Guilty

Pearce is accused of hiring Anthony Pilato and Isaac Hill, both 15, to kill her husband. The two boys pleaded guilty April 21 to the slaying, which occurred when they attacked Wayne Pearce, 40, with a kitchen knife and hatchet outside his Cardiff apartment as he left for his job as a construction foreman.

Although Pearce’s attorney has steadfastly argued that the 41-year-old teacher’s aide for students with learning disabilities is innocent, Pilato and Hill say she promised them $100,000 to share and two cars to carry out the crime.

In testimony at the Vista Municipal Court last week, they said Pearce wanted her husband dead so she could reap $200,000 in insurance money and keep her Valley Center house, which a looming divorce threatened to snatch away.

On Friday, the girl befriended by Pearce corroborated much of that testimony, although she differed from the two admitted killers on some details.

Attacked Inconsistencies

William Fletcher, Pearce’s attorney, has continually zeroed in on the inconsistencies in testimony. Deputy District Atty. Tim Casserly, however, suggested that the statements by the various teen-age witnesses remain damning proof of Pearce’s guilt.

“The gist of it is all the same,” he said. “They’re basically all saying the same thing--that she hired Anthony and Isaac to kill her husband, and they did it.”

A petite blond, the girl cried often as she delivered her emotional testimony against Pearce, a woman she suggested had on several occasions promised to adopt her.

The girl said she was “living on the streets” when, in early January, she contacted Pearce, whom she had met while attending Orange Glen the previous year.

Let Her Stay

Pearce agreed to let the girl stay at her Valley Center house, where the teacher’s aide had lived alone since her separation from Wayne Pearce over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The house quickly became a haven for teen-agers eager to party. The girl said a cluster of about half-a-dozen students would come over “a couple of times during the week and all through the weekend” to drink liquor, smoke marijuana and snort crystal methamphetamine.

Pearce often was the supplier of drugs, the girl testified, keeping them in a shoe box in a closet. The girl said she observed Pearce smoke marijuana several times and take crystal methamphetamine twice.

Moreover, Pearce rented X-rated movies “and then anyone who wanted to watch them could put them in” a videocassette recorder in the house, she said.

Aware of Relationship

The girl said she was aware that Pearce and Rodriguez were carrying on a sexual relationship because she walked in on them twice while they were naked in bed together.

“I don’t think it was love, just something sexual,” she said.

In that setting, a murder was spawned, according to the young witness.

The girl said Pearce told her about six times that she wanted her husband killed. On five occasions, she took part in discussions with Pearce, Pilato and Hill about carrying out the crime, said the girl.

Pointed Out Pictures

Although Pilato and Hill at first planned to kill Wayne Pearce with a handgun Roberta Pearce kept in her dresser drawer, they later resorted to the knives, she said. Pearce pointed out pictures of her husband to the two youths so they knew who to stalk, the girl said.

As the boys left to carry out the crime, Pearce told them to “be careful, don’t get caught,” the girl testified. She and Pearce busied themselves cleaning the house of any fingerprints or other evidence that could be found by police, resorting to hiding a stash of drugs in a fertilizer bag in the garage, the girl said.

“I asked her, ‘Do you really think it’s going to happen?’ She said, ‘I don’t know,’ ” the girl testified. “She said she would be happy if it did happen because she could keep the house and adopt me.”

Sent Her to Bed

Pearce told her to put on her pajamas and go to bed in case the police came, the girl said. The next morning, after just a few hours of sleep, the girl said, she was awakened by Pearce.

“She said, ‘They did it, they really did it.’ I was shocked,” the girl said.

When Pearce began handling calls from relatives and friends who had learned of Wayne Pearce’s death, she put on a facade of sadness, the girl said.

“She would cry over the phone and say, ‘I can’t believe he’s dead. I can’t believe anyone could do this to him.’ ” the girl testified. “Then she’d get off and say, ‘I wish these people would stop calling me. . . . I’m sick of these people calling and questioning me.’ ”

Later, Pearce told her, “I’m glad he’s dead and I can adopt you,” said the girl, who left the house a day after the killing and never returned.

Wanted Adoption

During cross-examination by Fletcher, the Carlsbad attorney representing Pearce, the girl acknowledged that she did not try to derail the murder plot, saying she didn’t take it seriously and “wanted to get adopted by her.”

She said all the youths were doing drugs the night before the killing and Hill and Pilato were acting “just really hyper.”

The next morning, Pearce had tears in her eyes and “seemed a little upset” when she talked of Wayne Pearce’s death, the girl told Fletcher.

Later, she said, Pearce told her “she couldn’t believe that she wanted her husband killed just for money, and she knew she was going to jail. . . . I told her I wished none of this had happened.”