Ramirez Undecided on Offering Defense

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan on Monday gave defense lawyers for Night Stalker suspect Richard Ramirez another day to persuade their client to allow them to go forward with a defense in the trial.

Attorneys Daniel V. Hernandez and Ray G. Clark are due back in court at 10:30 a.m. today, at which time they are expected to disclose their intentions in open court and then proceed.

The two had been ready to start presenting their case last week, but Ramirez began having second thoughts about that strategy, according to Clark. Since then, Clark and Hernandez have been trying to persuade Ramirez to go along with the original plan of calling defense witnesses on his behalf. Toward that end, they also have met Ramirez’s parents, who arrived here last week from El Paso, Tex.

Ramirez, 29, is charged with 13 murders and 30 other felony counts in a spree of nighttime attacks throughout Los Angeles County, mostly in the spring and summer of 1985.

Earlier Monday, Tynan denied a defense motion to strike two of the 43 felony counts against Ramirez. Those counts were for rape and sodomy in the alleged attack of a Monterey Park nurse in her home.

A few minutes later, as court bailiffs led him out of court for the lunch break, Ramirez shouted at some 20 news reporters and photographers: “Media--sensation-seeking parasites!”