OJAI : Reporters Need Not Testify, Judge Rules

A Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that two reporters who interviewed a 31-year-old man accused of posing as a 17-year-old high school student do not have to testify at this time.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kenneth R. Yegan ruled that testimony from Times staff writer Santiago O’Donnell and Daily News staff writer James Maielle Jr. would “necessitate an undue consumption of time” in the trial of alleged con artist David Michael Murray, who is charged with 12 counts of fraud.

In making the ruling, Yegan indicated that the prosecution had already presented an abundance of evidence against Murray, 31--alias Shi Stone, 17. “I think it’s just cumulative at this juncture,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles R. Roberts Sr. said he wanted the reporters to testify about incriminating statements Murray may have made to them. In a March article by O’Donnell, Murray is quoted as saying: “Ojai was wide open to me. I could have taken the entire town.”

Yegan rejected the request but said he may consider allowing the reporters to testify at the request of Murray, who is accused of defrauding Ventura County business people of money, merchandise, medicine and services between Jan. 8 and 22.

Roberts said Murray spent most of his time posing as the hemophiliac son of an Air Force colonel wounded in the Panama invasion. But he also posed as a displaced airline traveler, a movie star, a movie producer, a model and a cross-country bicyclist while in Ventura County, Roberts said.