OJAI : Hearing Postponed in Impostor Case

Prosecutors won a delay in Ventura Superior Court Friday in the case of David Michael Murray, the alleged impostor who enrolled for four weeks at an Ojai high school as 17-year-old Shi Stone. Murray is accused of violating parole from a 1980 car theft conviction.

Despite an objection from Murray’s defense attorney, Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch postponed for two weeks a preliminary hearing on the parole violation charges. Deputy Dist. Atty. Stacey A. Ratner said she needed a continuance until she received documents from Texas proving Murray’s identity.

“Two weeks is all you get. No further continuations,” Storch told Ratner.

A week ago, a Ventura Municipal judge dismissed three fraud charges against Murray for crimes he was accused of committing while enrolled at Nordhoff High School.

Murray contends that he is in fact Shi Stone, a victim of mistaken identity. He refuses to cooperate with the court-appointed public defender, but two judges have denied four motions made by Murray since his March 1 arrest to represent himself.

Court documents show that Murray stopped reporting to his parole officer in December, 1981, and subsequently was arrested in Texas in 1982.

Ratner said she expected more fraud charges to be filed against Murray as a result of a string of scams that police alleged he committed in the city of Ventura last January.