Man to Stand Trial in Nurse’s Beating Death : Courts: The judge at a preliminary hearing cites letters by defendant Neil Matzen stating that he killed Donna Connaty in return for a $15,000 payoff.

A Santa Ana man accused of slaying a 34-year-old nurse for a $15,000 payoff was ordered to stand trial Tuesday on charges of committing murder for financial gain.

Municipal Judge Margaret Anderson said testimony and evidence presented in Neil F. Matzen’s preliminary hearing suggest that the defendant did carry out the crime.

“He wrote an open letter to the paper and to the police officer,” confessing to the Nov. 24 crime, Anderson said. “ . . . There is sufficient evidence a homicide did occur. The victim did not commit suicide . . . in those letters the defendant stated that he did it for $15,000.”

During the hearing, Buena Park Police Detective Gaylen Buchanan testified that the defendant was implicated by his wife, Cynthia Matzen, in the murder of Donna J. Connaty.

“She gave me explicit details of the homicide,” said Buchanan, who added that he doubted Cynthia Matzen could give “that type of detail and not be present at the scene.”

The most compelling evidence against Matzen consists of letters he wrote admitting that he committed the crime. The defendant mailed three letters--to police, his wife, and the Orange County Register. In the latter, Matzen said he agreed to kill Donna Connaty in return for a $15,000 payment from Richard Connaty.

Nine days after he allegedly beat Connaty to death with a metal pipe, Matzen gunned down her husband, Richard P. Connaty at a Santa Ana mobile home park. Matzen was not charged in the shooting death of Richard Connaty because investigators ruled he acted in self-defense.

Matzen, a tow-truck operator, said in the letter to the newspaper that the shoot-out occurred after he told Connaty that he would no longer permit him to have an affair with Cynthia Matzen.

Defense attorney David Biggs argued that there was no proof that the letters were actually written by Matzen. He noted that the text was printed, while Matzen’s signature was written.

“There was no foundation to establish that the body of the letter was written by Neil Matzen,” Biggs said outside court.

Despite the fact that the text was printed, the judge ruled that the signatures on all three letters, including the one confessing the crime, were enough evidence to order Matzen to stand trial.

“It’s an incredibly distinctive signature,” she said. “ . . . I have nothing else to go on . . . but what I have is sufficient enough to tie the two (letters) together.”

Matzen’s arraignment has been scheduled for May 6 in Santa Ana. He is being held without bail in County Jail in Santa Ana.