No Retrial for Lucas on 2 Other Charges

David Allen Lucas, sentenced to death last week after he was convicted of three throat-slashing murders and three other crimes, will not face a retrial on two additional murder charges.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel T. Williams told San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos at a hearing Monday that prosecutors wanted to dismiss the two counts “in the interests of justice.”

A San Diego Superior Court jury--which convicted Lucas on June 21 of three murders, one charge of attempted murder and two charges of kidnaping--deadlocked 11-1 for conviction on the two other murder charges.

Those charges stemmed from the deaths of Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3, both of Lakeside. Strang was baby-sitting the child when their throats were slashed Oct. 23, 1984.

After confirming that Williams had discussed the decision to dismiss with the victims’ families, Exarhos dismissed the charges.

Becky Fisher of Santee, Amber’s aunt, was in court Monday. “I’m glad it’s over with,” she said.

Last Tuesday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Laura Palmer Hammes sentenced Lucas to death for the three murders, saying there was nothing in his eight-month trial “to support sympathy or mercy for (Lucas) in light of the crimes.”

Hammes’ sentence confirmed the jury’s Aug. 2 recommendation that she sentence Lucas, 34, a carpet cleaner from Spring Valley, to death.

The jury convicted Lucas of first-degree murder in the May 4, 1979, killings of Suzanne Jacobs, 31, and her 3-year-old son, Colin, as well as in the Nov. 20, 1984, killing of Anne Catherine Swanke, a University of San Diego student. Jacobs and her son were found in their Normal Heights home with their throats slashed. Swanke’s throat was also slashed. Her body was found on a remote hillside in Spring Valley.

Jurors also convicted Lucas of the attempted murder of Jodie Santiago Robertson, 34, of Seattle. She survived a June 8, 1984, attack in which she was choked and her throat was slashed. Lucas also was convicted of kidnaping Robertson, who testified for the prosecution at the trial, and of kidnaping Swanke.