2nd Attempted-Murder Trial Set
A 27-year-old woman, who had been acquitted in July of trying to kill a Palos Verdes Estates woman, was ordered to stand trial on a charge of attempted murder for allegedly attacking the woman’s father with a knife at his home in September.
Jack Ruzicka testified Thursday at a preliminary hearing in South Bay Municipal Court that Patricia Louise Shelter of Moreno Valley repeatedly lunged at him with a knife when he answered his front door Sept. 9.
“The moment I opened the door, she came after me . . . mumbling something like, ‘If I can’t get Heather, I’m going to kill you,’ ” Ruzicka testified.
Judge Thomas Allen Jr. ordered Shelter held without bail for the attempted murder charge and for a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. An arraignment was scheduled for Oct. 25.
In July, a Torrance Superior Court jury found Shelter not guilty of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges after she allegedly stabbed Ruzicka’s daughter, Heather, at the Palos Verdes Estates home. The two had been roommates, but his daughter moved out after Shelter allegedly made sexual advances toward her, Jack Ruzicka said.
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