Ex-Probation Officer to Stand Trial in Ambush Killing

A former probation officer was ordered Wednesday to stand trial in the ambush slaying of a girlfriend, a nurse who authorities said was shot when she stopped her car to help a man who appeared to be injured in the street.

A Studio City doctor identified Giles Aubrey at a preliminary hearing in San Fernando Municipal Court as the man he saw rise from the pavement and shoot Lucille Marie Warren, 40, of Inglewood on Feb. 22.

Aubrey allegedly lay in the street in the hills above Studio City, apparently pretending to be injured, a few blocks from a residence where Warren worked as a night nurse, until she passed on her way home.

Surgeon Philip Quilici testified that he was driving on Montcalm Avenue when he saw Aubrey on the ground next to Warren’s parked car. Quilici said he saw Warren get out and run toward Aubrey. Detectives have said they believe that Warren thought that the man was injured, although they do not know whether she recognized him.

Quilici said that as Warren reached the front of her car, Aubrey stood up, holding a small, dark object, which detectives say was a gun. As Quilici drove past, he heard three gunshots, looked in his rear-view mirror and saw Warren on the ground, he said.

She had been shot four times, once in the head, police said.

Minutes later, the surgeon testified, he saw Aubrey following him in an orange car. He said he saw Aubrey’s face and knew immediately that it was the same man he had seen on the ground.

Quilici testified that he was afraid that Aubrey was going to harm him, but they came to an intersection and Aubrey drove in another direction. Quilici said he returned to give Warren emergency aid, using a section of a neighbor’s garden hose to give her oxygen until paramedics arrived.

Warren died four hours later without regaining consciousness.

Richard D’Arbo testified Wednesday that he was driving through the area when he saw Warren lying in a pool of blood on the road and saw an orange car driving away. D’Arbo said he could not see the driver’s face, but used his car phone to report the car’s license plate number to police.

Authorities traced the car, registered in Arkansas, to Aubrey. He was arrested two days later at his home near Inglewood, where he lived with his wife.

Warren’s son and daughter, ages 14 and 15, told police that their mother, who was divorced, had dated Aubrey for two months before her death. The children told authorities that Aubrey had known their mother for at least four years.

At the time of his arrest, Aubrey was working as a hospital janitor. He had served as a Los Angeles County probation officer for a year in 1981, but left the job because of mental problems, including depression and anxiety, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Edwin Greene.

Greene said Aubrey was jealous of Warren, suspecting that she was seeing other men, although there is no evidence she was.

Aubrey, who spent about five months in the County Jail’s mental ward until doctors decided that he was competent to stand trial, faces the death penalty if convicted because of the special circumstance that he lay in wait for Warren, showing extra premeditation, Greene said.