Judge Cites Defendant’s Handling of Own Case in Denying He Is Unfit

David Michael Murray opened his defense on 12 counts of fraud Monday by asking Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kenneth R. Yegan to declare him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Yegan denied the motion.

“After having observed you throughout this trial, it’s clear to me that you certainly are competent to stand trial and to act as your own attorney,” Yegan said. “You are doing as good a job as any lawyer, with some exceptions in some cases where you don’t have the code sections down.”

Then the judge smiled slightly, as he has frequently while watching Murray manage his own defense.

The 31-year-old Murray is accused of defrauding Ventura County business people of goods and services, including hotel rooms, clothing, a bicycle and a blood-coagulant medicine to treat his hemophilia.

Authorities say Murray was arrested while posing at Nordhoff High School in Ojai as Shi Stone, the 17-year-old son of an Air Force colonel wounded in the Panama invasion.

During his opening statement, Murray said that the facts could be interpreted several ways and that several people could be responsible for the crimes.

Acting as his own lawyer, Murray began questioning defense witnesses Monday with the same articulate, if hesitant, confidence that he showed while cross-examining prosecution witnesses during the first five days of the trial.

Murray often objected during cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles R. Roberts Sr., and Yegan frequently upheld the objections on grounds that witnesses were testifying to more than they were asked or that Roberts’ questions were improper.

Yegan also sustained objections by Roberts about Murray’s vague or improper questions. For instance, Murray asked a re-called prosecution witness, “Did anything occur to you after you left the stand the first time that you felt like you should have mentioned?”

Murray has also offered his own probation report as evidence, even though it describes a 1980 fraud arrest that charged him with defrauding Carol Moynahan of $3,000 and a new Mustang while posing as Steven Randall Stringer, an Exxon oil surveyor afflicted with leukemia.

Murray proceeded gamely, always addressing Yegan as “your honor” and occasionally passing notes to his private investigator, Russell Noragon, on a yellow pad covered with notes, stick figures and cartoon speech balloons.

Referring to himself in the third person, Murray retraced the week in January, 1990, when Moynahan testified that he showed up outside her trailer at Hobson Park on the Pacific Coast Highway.

He then asked if she’d ever known him to use the alias Michael Myers, and if she knew that it was the name of the killer in the movie “Halloween.”

“I’ve never seen ‘Halloween,’ ” Moynahan testified.

Murray then played a taped interview between investigators and Moynahan, who could be heard saying she saw Murray in court in 1987 under the name Michael Myers. Moynahan’s taped voice said she believed that she’d heard the name in discussion about a Simi Valley policeman, “or in ‘Halloween,’ the horror movie. His name was also Myers.”

On hearing the contradiction, Moynahan looked at Murray from the witness stand with a bemused smile and shook her head. He showed no emotion and continued the questioning.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. today.