Woman Tells of Hammer Attack in Parking Lot

A 51-year-old woman testified Wednesday that a Tarzana shopping center owner hurled a claw hammer through the glass of her car window, puncturing her face, because her auto partially blocked a handicapped parking space.

Marilynn Packer testified in Van Nuys Superior Court that Robert Alan Wall, 49, “swung that hammer as powerfully as he could right through my window.” Packer said the claw end of the hammer punctured the right side of her face, breaking her cheekbone and knocking out several teeth.

Packer said Wall then climbed through the broken window and “started to hit me with his fists while trying to pull the keys out” of the ignition.

Wall, 49, is charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit great bodily harm for the May 28, 1988, incident at Wall Street Plaza in the 18600 block of Ventura Boulevard.

The incident began when Packer parked her car in a manner that partially blocked an adjacent space for the handicapped.

Defense attorney Richard S. Plotkin told the jury that his client and a shopping center security guard had repeatedly asked Packer to move her car and that she responded by swearing at them.

Plotkin said that when his client tried to make a citizen’s arrest, Packer tried to drive off, injuring three people, including Wall.

Packer testified that when a security guard asked her to move her car, she told him that she only wanted to make a phone call.

When she returned, Packer testified, her car was blocked by Wall’s Mercedes-Benz and he told her that he had called a tow truck.

Packer said a car in an adjacent space departed, and that as she tried to maneuver around the Mercedes to leave, Wall grabbed a hammer from the trunk of his car and hurled it through her window.

If convicted, Wall faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Simon Hiller.