Nurse Slaying Suspect Goes Home; No Charges Filed : Crime: The district attorney’s office frees Neill F. Matzen. He leaves hospital jail ward after treatment for bullet wound from shoot-out that killed her spouse.

The Orange County district attorney’s office declined Wednesday to charge tow truck operator Neill F. Matzen with the bludgeoning death of a Buena Park nurse.

Matzen, 36, of Santa Ana was released from the jail ward of Western Medical Center in Anaheim late Wednesday and allowed to go home. He was arrested by Buena Park police Monday evening on suspicion of murdering Donna J. Connaty at her home on Nov. 24 and had been in the hospital recovering from wounds he suffered in a shoot-out with Connaty’s husband Monday morning.

Richard J. Connaty was killed in that shoot-out, nine days after his wife was bludgeoned to death upon her return from work at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. He walked into Matzen’s trailer, shouted “You killed my wife!” and then fired a shot into Matzen’s left arm before running out, police said. He was killed by a shot from Matzen’s gun in a second face-to-face confrontation outside moments later.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick K. Donahue, who has been in close contact with Buena Park detectives since Donna Connaty’s body was found Nov. 25, said the decision not to file charges was made after a review of evidence and interview transcripts.

“I’m not going to go into the details,” Donahue said. Asked if the evidence against Matzen was insufficient to prosecute right now, he answered: “There is an inference to be drawn, yes.”

Donahue refused to say whether Matzen was still the prime suspect in the case.

“Obviously, we want to keep the investigation going,” he said. “We feel pretty confident about it.”

Santa Ana police said that Matzen’s killing of Richard Connaty appeared to be a case of self-defense and that they do not expect charges to be filed.

Buena Park police were tight-lipped about Donahue’s decision not to file charges in the Donna Connaty murder, referring all calls to the district attorney’s office.

Donahue said he had talked with police about the possibility of making an arrest in Donna Connaty’s murder, but he said he wasn’t sure if he had consulted with them on Monday before Matzen was arrested.

“I don’t really remember,” Donahue said. “I don’t really advise police when to do arrests and not to arrest.”

Buena Park investigators said earlier this week that statements made by Cynthia R. Matzen after Monday’s shoot-out prompted their arrest of her husband. She directed police to a lead pipe underneath the Connatys’ home that may have been the murder weapon and also to three savings account passbooks in the Matzens’ trailer that belonged to Donna Connaty.

Cynthia Matzen also told police that she drove her husband to the Connatys’ house--ostensibly for a weekend trip to the desert with Richard Connaty--a few hours before Donna Connaty was killed there and picked him up a few hours later, police said.

Before his arrest, Neill Matzen told investigators that he went to the Connatys’ home expecting to meet Richard Connaty there and left behind a note asking, “Richard, where are you?”

Then, he and his wife drove to the desert near Barstow and met Richard Connaty, who had driven there the previous night with his three children and with the Matzens’ daughter, according to police.

Richard Connaty, who was estranged from his wife and whose involvement in his wife’s death has not been ruled out, told police that he was concerned that Matzen had gone to his house looking for him on Nov. 24, since he knew that he had already left, police said.

The Matzens were somewhat friendly with Richard Connaty, who often stayed in a trailer next to theirs since he and his wife separated in 1989.

But the couple feuded with Donna Connaty, who did not like them, according to relatives. Cynthia Matzen filed a small claims suit against Donna Connaty over a biting dog that Connaty gave her, and Neill Matzen once served court papers on Connaty for a friend filing another lawsuit against her.