Russ Portrayed as Liar and Thief at Murder Trial : Courts: He killed his wife when she discovered he was an embezzler, the prosecution said. The defense claimed she was a partner in the financial scheme.

Charles (Chuck) Russ, once a high-flying telemarketing businessman, murdered his wife four years ago to cover up his dire financial straits and his lies, prosecutor Mark Pettine told jurors during opening arguments in Russ’ murder trial Wednesday.

In a detailed statement lasting more than two hours, the deputy district attorney painted a picture of Russ as an embezzler and liar who was forced to kill his wife, Pamela, when she found out about him.

But defense attorney Bill Youmans said he would call the victim, Pamela Russ, to testify through her diaries, which would show she was aware of the couple’s financial woes and had aided her husband in fighting to preserve their image as a rich and happy twosome.

Pamela Russ’s badly beaten body was found early one morning in 1987 on a lonely stretch of Torrey Pines Road south of Del Mar. She had been beaten on the head and had been run over by her Mercedes-Benz auto.

At first, Russ, 40, was not a suspect but when he later became one, he disappeared. He was arrested two years after the killing in Florida, where he was living under another name. He was discovered after the murder case was aired on the nationally televised “America’s Most Wanted” show.

Russ is charged with first-degree murder and with special circumstances--murder for financial gain. The prosecution contends that Russ not only needed to cover up his crooked financial dealings but also needed the $600,000 in insurance he had taken out on his wife in the two years before her brutal murder on Feb. 1, 1987.

Pettine gave a graphic description of the murder scene in his opening statement:

A homeless Vietnam veteran sleeping near the roadside “heard a blood-curdling scream” about 5 a.m. at the murder site, and a couple of minutes later two security guards coming off duty at a nearby industrial plant found the 33-year-old woman’s body, “bloody and beaten and battered” in the northern lanes of the highway.

Pettine charged that Russ beat his wife savagely, smashing her head against the steering wheel of her car. He said that Russ drove his wife’s car after her, pursuing her down the highway as she fled on foot, leaving a trail of blood.

Then, Pettine said, Russ caught up, hitting her with the car, which tossed her onto the hood, her face against the windshield.

“For a moment, Mr. and Mrs. Russ were face to face,” Pettine said. Then Russ braked and Pamela Russ fell off the car and onto the pavement, the prosecutor said.

A pair of running shoes at the murder scene, from which fingerprints were lifted, and tire tracks identified by the FBI as being from Charles Russ’s Mercedes-Benz, tie the man to the murder, Pettine told the jury.

Pamela Russ was “the last remaining financial asset” that Charles Russ had, Pettine said. Russ “killed his wife for the money. He needed the $600,000 in insurance money.” And, “he wanted to seal his wife’s lips,” because Pamela Russ “had finally figured out that they were in desperate financial straits,” Pettine said.

During the prosecutor’s presentation of his case, the dapper Russ conferred frequently with attorney Youmans, often shaking his head. His mother, who sat in the audience until Judge Michael D. Wellington asked that all potential witnesses leave the courtroom, said that her son was not capable of murder.

“I don’t know about the financial things. That was a family matter, but I know my son did not commit murder. He could not have done it. And he has told me that he did not do it,” Genevieve Gamble said. “Just tell me, if he had done it, why didn’t he stick around to collect the insurance money?”

Gamble said she had been subpoenaed by the prosecution, but did not think that she would be expected to testify against her son.

“I think that he (Pettine) subpoenaed me just to keep me out of the courtroom,” Gamble said. “I don’t think it is right. I think that I have a right to be there and so does Ginger Allen (the dead woman’s mother).”

Youmans, in his opening remarks, said he would not contest most of the financial details leading up to the slaying that were outlined by Pettine.

“But his case (against Russ) is based on one central, critical theme,” Youmans said, “that Pamela did not participate in or have knowledge of the financial affairs of her husband.”

If Pamela Russ had been aware of the disastrous financial bind in which Charles Russ was caught, “there could not have been such a brutal argument” leading up to her murder, Youmans argued.

The defense attorney said he would “call Pamela Russ through her diaries,” which he said showed that “she was aware of what was going on during 1985 and 1986 . . . that she was personally aware and that she participated.” During those two years, Russ is accused of embezzling more than $78,000 from his mother-in-law, Ginger Allen, telling her that he would invest the money for her, then using it to try to bail out his troubled business and to keep up his image as a successful, high-living businessman. (Allen has won a $2.3-million civil judgment against Russ, but has collected only part of that, from her daughter’s insurance policies.)

Youmans said he will call witnesses who will testify that Pamela Russ as well as her husband were involved in the scheme, and will introduce statements from Pamela Russ’s diaries showing that she obtained her mother’s notarized signature on one of the papers involved in the deal.

He said the diaries also contain Pamela Russ’ writings of being “excited and nervous” about “moving to Australia” with her husband, and also prove she was aware that her husband’s telemarketing offices were closed and empty of employees because she “had to stop by and feed the fish” in the deserted Cardiff building.

“There is no doubt that Pamela Russ was aware of where the money was going . . . of what her mother’s money was to be used for,” Youmans said.

The attorney also said that Russ’ testimony and his dead wife’s diaries would be used to show that Pamela Russ knew there was no money in the couple’s bank accounts, knew the telemarketing corporation was dead and was aware that Russ had taken a large amount of money in cash from the failing corporation.

Youmans also said a witness would testify that Pamela Russ confessed, a few days before her death, that she was nervous about “carrying around a large amount of money” to be used to buy travelers checks.

Russ left San Diego about six months after his wife’s murder to get away from the “fishbowl existence” which the brutal crime had brought down on him, Youmans said. He found a place “to escape the nightmarish existence” caused by the murder and “he found peace,” the lawyer argued in explaining why Russ did not return to San Diego.

The trial is set to continue today.