Lawyers Say Accused Was Comtois’ Victim

A woman accused of helping a drifter kidnap two Chatsworth girls and kill one of them was forced at gunpoint to cooperate with the man, the woman’s attorneys said in court Monday.

Marsha Lynn Ramos was as much a victim of drifter Roland Norman Comtois as were the two girls, according to Alex R. Kessel, one of two attorneys representing Ramos in her San Fernando Superior Court trial on charges that include murder and kidnaping.

“All her actions were done at gunpoint by Mr. Comtois,” Kessel said during his opening statement. “Everything she did was because she was forced and coerced. There’s only one perpetrator, who has been put to justice, and that’s Roland Comtois.”

Comtois, 60, was sentenced July 31 to die in the gas chamber after he was convicted of murder, attempted murder, kidnaping, attempted sodomy and other charges.

Ramos has been charged with the same crimes and also faces the death penalty if convicted. She is accused of luring Wendy Masuhara, 14, who was shot to death, and a 13-year-old girl into Comtois’ camper on Sept. 18, 1987. She allegedly asked them to help her start the vehicle, which she said had stalled. The girls, who were best friends, had been walking in their Chatsworth neighborhood when Ramos approached them.

During cross-examination of the surviving girl Monday, defense lawyer Dennis E. Mulcahy read from a police report in which she told police that Comtois pointed a gun both at Ramos and the girls before they entered the camper. The girl on Monday said she did not remember making such a statement to police.

The girl, now 16, also said that Ramos did not assist Comtois when he tied them up and gagged them. She said Ramos sat next to her after she had been sexually molested by Comtois and “asked if I was OK.”

She said that, after she and Masuhara entered the camper, Comtois emerged from the back, pointed a gun at the girls and said he would kill them if they did not do what he said. After tying them up and gagging them, he drove off. Comtois then parked the camper and sexually molested her while Masuhara and Ramos stayed in the camper’s bathroom, the girl said.

She testified that Ramos complied with Comtois’ request to inject her with cocaine. Comtois then drove the camper to remote Woolsey Canyon, near the Chatsworth Reservoir and placed the girls in an abandoned station wagon. He then shot them both in the head, killing Masuhara.

Her face and neck covered with blood, the surviving girl managed to walk to Valley Circle Boulevard and flag down a car. The motorist took her to a nearby hospital, where doctors removed the bullet from her neck.