Countywide : Accused Mortician Wants Own Lawyer

The arraignment of a Pasadena funeral home worker charged with fatally poisoning a rival mortician with oleander leaves was delayed Tuesday and an April 6 hearing set on his request to be represented by a private attorney rather than the county public defender.

David Wayne Sconce, 33, originally asked that Roger John Diamond, of Santa Monica, serve as his court-appointed lawyer. He argued that Diamond, who represented him in a related criminal proceeding last year, is familiar with the case.

Municipal Judge Barry B. Klopfer appointed Deputy Public Defender Susan Tandy Olson instead, prompting an appeal by Diamond. It is scheduled to be heard by Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch.

Sconce faces the death penalty and is indigent.

Sconce is charged with murdering Timothy R. Waters, 24, a Burbank mortician, to keep him from exposing activities at the Lamb Funeral Home where Sconce worked. Waters died in his mother’s home in Ventura County, so Sconce is being tried here.

Sconce is serving a five-year prison term after pleading guilty last year to the mingling of human remains, the theft of body parts and the removal of gold teeth from cadavers at the funeral home.