Ramona

A Sheriff’s Department investigator testified Monday that a transient admitted to him that he played a hand in the death of his mother by placing her body in the trunk of her car and driving her from Ramona to Mississippi, where he dumped the body along a rural road.

Stephen Algya, a homicide investigator who interviewed Lorne Schultz in the Hancock County Jail after his arrest by Mississippi officers, said that Schultz dumped his mother’s body because “he felt it wasn’t right anymore to keep her in the trunk.”

Algya’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing for Schultz, the 47-year-old son of Mayme Flagg Schultz, who died near New Year’s Day at her home on Moonglow Drive in Ramona. After the hearing, San Diego County Municipal Judge Jay M. Bloom ordered Schultz to stand trial in Superior Court on charges of murder and auto theft.

Prosecutors say Schultz bludgeoned his 72-year-old mother--possibly with a crowbar that was found in the trunk of her car--after she accused him of stealing a mink stole.

According to Algya’s testimony, Schultz admitted to major components of the crime with which he is charged, but he said his mother died after he pushed her during an argument and she struck her head on a night stand in her bedroom.

Schultz admitted taking jewelry from his dead mother, which he later pawned to get cash, Algya said.

Algya also testified that he recovered what is believed to be part of Mayme Schultz’s right ear near the foot of her bed, and not near the night stand at the head of her bed.

Schultz, who is being held in lieu of $500,000, will be arraigned in Superior Court on April 29.