Night Stalker Case Lawyer Sent to Jail
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday ordered Arturo Hernandez, one of three lawyers for Night Stalker defendant Richard Ramirez, to spend one day in County Jail for failing to pay a court-imposed $100 fine.
Judge Michael A. Tynan had imposed the fine Aug. 18 because Hernandez had violated another court order to check in with Tynan daily by telephone. Hernandez was to have paid the fine by Sept. 1.
Hernandez was led out of court Monday to begin serving his sentence “forthwith.”
The San Jose attorney has been one of Ramirez’s lawyers of record for nearly four years now, but he has rarely been in court since jury selection began in July, 1988.
Tynan on Monday imposed additional fines of $2,400 on Hernandez, also for failure to check in with the court by phone earlier this month. He gave Hernandez until Sept. 29 to pay.
The jury on Monday completed its 20th day of deliberations in the capital case in which Ramirez is charged with 13 murders and 30 other felonies.
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