Killer Tells Jury That Nurse Hired Him for Earlier Attack

A registered nurse convicted of hiring a co-worker to murder her roommate hired the same man seven years ago to attack another nurse so she could get the victim’s job, the hired killer testified Tuesday in Van Nuys Superior Court.

James Flores Luna testified that Maureen McDermott offered him money to break DeWayne Bell’s arm or leg so that Bell would be forced to give up his job as a private duty nurse. McDermott said she wanted the job, Luna said.

Luna, 36, testified as a prosecution witness before a jury that convicted McDermott on March 2 of first-degree murder for hiring Luna to stab to death McDermott’s roommate, Stephen Eldridge, in 1985.

The jury has the option of recommending a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.

Until her arrest, McDermott, 42, of Van Nuys, was a nurse at County-USC Medical Center, where Luna was an orderly.

Luna testified that McDermott told him she wanted Bell disabled so she could take over Bell’s job as a private nurse for a stroke victim.

Luna testified that he enlisted two accomplices and in April, 1983 attacked Bell at Bell’s Van Nuys apartment. They were unprepared for Bell’s size and strength, however. He could not break Bell’s arm, so he slashed Bell’s face and chest with a knife instead, Luna said.

Despite his injuries, Bell showed up for work the next day, Luna testified, and McDermott told Luna to make a series of anonymous threatening phone calls to the patient’s home, which resulted in Bell being fired. McDermott then took his job, Luna testified.

Luna, who pleaded guilty to both crimes in a deal with prosecutors that spared his life, testified during the trial that he was hired by McDermott to kill Eldridge so McDermott could collect a $100,000 mortgage insurance policy.