VENTURA : Mortician Enters Not-Guilty Plea
David Wayne Sconce pleaded not guilty to a murder charge in Ventura County Superior Court on Wednesday in the 1985 oleander-poisoning death of rival mortician Timothy Waters.
Prosecutors have alleged that Sconce, 34, spiked Waters’ drink with a fatal dose of oleander at a Ventura County restaurant to stop him from spreading word about violations at the Sconce family’s Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena.
On Wednesday, Sconce pleaded innocent to the murder charge and a special circumstance of murder by poison, which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty in his case.
He entered the plea before Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones, who was assigned the case after prosecutors filed a motion to disqualify the original judge, Charles R. McGrath. Special prosecutor Harvey Giss declined to say in an interview why he asked McGrath to excuse himself from the Sconce case.
Sconce’s trial has not been scheduled, pending a meeting Friday among Jones and the attorneys to discuss motions defense attorney Roger J. Diamond said he intends to file to have the case moved to Los Angeles, to suppress evidence and to dismiss the charges against Sconce.
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