STATE : Landlady to Face Murder Trial
Former landlady Dorothea Puente was ordered today to stand trial on nine counts of murder, accused of killing her elderly tenants to get their pension and disability benefits.
Sacramento County Municipal Court Judge Gail Ohanesian, culminating a five-week preliminary hearing, ruled that the 61-year-old Puente should be arraigned in Superior Court on July 10.
“I do find that there is ample evidence that death was by criminal means,” the judge said in ordering Puente to stand trial on all the counts with which she had been charged.
Puente was arrested after a social worker reported that one of her clients--a roomer in Puente’s home--had disappeared. In November, 1988, authorities dug seven bodies from the grounds of the home.
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