Judge Bans Videos in Pacewitz Murder Trial

An Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday disallowed two key pieces of evidence intended to show that Michael Robert Pacewitz was insane when a 3-year-old Fullerton girl was murdered earlier this year.

The evidence, Pacewitz’s videotaped statements to police and a psychiatrist that a prosecutor said contained “talk about the devil” and drug use, would confuse the jury, Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon ruled Tuesday.

The prosecutor had argued to exclude the tapes, while the defense had tried to convince the judge that the jury should hear them.

However, Weatherspoon said that not only would the tapes be confusing but in fact they might work against the defendant, who has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Weatherspoon said that before making his ruling, he viewed both videotapes and “observed a tired defendant” responding to “leading questions.”

“I’m not a psychiatrist,” the judge said, “but I didn’t get much out of viewing these tapes . . . of his mental state.”

Arguing for exclusion of the tapes in Tuesday’s hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan Brown said Pacewitz concocted references to the devil and lied about drug use to bolster subsequent claims of insanity.

Pacewitz, 21, is on trial for the March 3 murder of Marcelline Onick and the March 2 attempted murders of his mother, Elena Fontaine, and her boyfriend, Juan Martinez Marin.

The little girl was stabbed 44 times in the attack, Brown has told the jury. Pacewitz has told reporters that Satan ordered him to kill the girl.

“There is some talk about the devil (on the tapes), but none of this devil talk comes up until police videotape his statement,” Brown said in the hearing.

Brown said Pacewitz made no references to the devil when he called 911 to report the crime to Fullerton police early March 3 or when he talked to the police officer who arrested him early that morning.

“The defendant tries to embellish on a state of conduct in an attempt to make him look crazy or crazier than he already is,” Brown said in the hearing.

The prosecutor also said Pacewitz lied to police investigators taking the March 3 videotaped statement when he told them that he had been using crystal methamphetamine about the time the crimes were committed and had sexually assaulted the little girl.

Subsequent tests have revealed that Pacewitz has not used drugs in the past year and that the child had not been sexually assaulted, Brown said.

“We’ve got a concocted version of the defendant’s story,” Brown said. “We’ve got a defendant thinking about how he’s going to avoid responsibility in this matter.”

In his argument to have the tapes heard, Deputy Public Defender E. Robert Goss Jr. said there was no indication that Pacewitz was aware his statements were being videotaped by authorities.

“I’m offering these to show the condition of Mr. Pacewitz’s mental state,” Goss said. “I think those tapes are very close in time to the commission of those offenses.”

Goss said Pacewitz’s videotaped statement to Fullerton police was taken from 12:20 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. March 3. Another statement to Dr. Kaushal Sharma, a psychiatrist, was videotaped the following day.

“What other best evidence of Mr. Pacewitz’s mental state than his taped interview with police and Dr. Sharma?” Goss said.

Following the hearing, Goss said he was surprised by the judge’s ruling and said it could be grounds for an appeal.

He noted that the jury has already been allowed to hear the prosecution’s tape recording ofPacewitz’s call to a 911 police dispatcher the morning of the murder in which the defendant admitted killing the child.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Goss said. “(The) jury only gets to hear what the D.A. wants them to hear.”

Testimony in the case is expected to resume Monday.