Crime-Rampage Account Opens Trial : Murder Case: The prosecutor says that Billy Ray Waldon, who is defending himself, killed three and committed a string of robberies.

A prosecutor Monday described Billy Ray Waldon, accused of murder, as an egotist who set out to commit perfect crimes to show off his “superior” intelligence, taking personal items from his victims as “trophies” of his violent rampages.

On the first day of Waldon’s trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter told the jury that the evidence would prove that Waldon committed a string of 24 crimes in 1985 and 1986--among them three murders, one attempted murder and a variety of other offenses ranging from rape to robbery to the malicious killing of animals.

Carpenter also presented a witness who said she saw Waldon at the Del Mar Heights home of Dawn Ellerman on Dec. 7, 1985. On that evening, the prosecutor said, Waldon fatally shot Ellerman in the neck and then set her house on fire, killing her 13-year-old daughter, Erin, in the blaze.

Kathleen Collimore testified that she was standing across the street from the burning Ellerman home that night when the garage door opened and a man ran out, jumped into a car and drove away. That man, Collimore said, was Waldon.

“He stuck in my mind,” she said, her voice shaking as she looked toward the defendant. “Then I saw his picture in the paper, and I’ve seen it again today. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Waldon, 39, who is representing himself without the assistance of an attorney, opted not to give opening arguments Monday, reserving the right to do so later. He also declined to cross-examine any of the three prosecution witnesses, saying that, although he had questions, he could not ask them.

“I’m forced to decline,” he told the trial judge, Superior Court Judge David M. Gill.

Waldon, who calls himself by a Cherokee name, Nvwtohiyada Idehesdi Sequoyah, is among the few California defendants who have gone to court in propria persona-- without the aid of professional lawyers--on a death penalty case. In an interview with The Times last week, he said he believes the court is biased against him because he has himself for a client. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The court has appointed Waldon two advisory counsel to help with his defense, but he has stopped talking to them both. Last month, he exiled them from his defense table, forcing them to sit in the audience, where they’re easier to ignore.

So, on Monday, as the jury settled in for what Gill predicts will be a four-month trial, Waldon was going it very much alone. In the morning, when Gill spent two hours instructing the jury about the charges in the case and the rules of evidence, Waldon appeared briefly to fall asleep, slumping down in his chair, shutting his eyes and letting his chin droop towards his chest.

Later, as Carpenter began outlining the charges against him, Waldon was more alert, sitting straight in his chair and casting an occasional glance at the 12 men and women who will decide his fate.

In Carpenter’s opening arguments, he took the jury on a chronological tour of what he called a crime rampage of “monumental proportions.”

That rampage began at the Ellerman house, Carpenter said. There, he said, Waldon shot Ellerman and crushed the skulls of her two small dogs. Waldon also ransacked the house, stealing computers, jewelry and coins.

Then, in an attempt to cover up his crimes, Carpenter said, Waldon used some kind of lighter fluid to start the fire. Ellerman’s teen-age daughter died in the fire.

On Dec. 14, 1985, a week later, a man with a ski mask and a gun robbed a woman named Carol Franklin, taking her purse and wallet, Carpenter said. The next day, an armed, masked man took the purse of a woman named Nancy Ross, he said.

Two days later, he said, a man in a ski mask twice raped a Pacific Beach woman. Before he fled, Carpenter said, the man rummaged through her purse and pulled out her driver’s license.

“He said, ‘Your driver’s license has expired. Why don’t you have a current driver’s license?’ He became very upset about that,” Carpenter said, adding that the woman later noticed that a photograph of herself and her boyfriend was missing.

On Dec. 19, 1985, Carpenter said, a man robbed Diane Thomas of her purse. A day later, as Julia Meredith was unpacking her car after a night of Christmas shopping, an armed man in a ski mask demanded her purse, he said. Police chased the man, and, when the car blew a tire, the man abandoned it and fled on foot.

When police examined the car, Carpenter said, they found it was registered to Waldon. As well as Waldon’s belongings, the prosecutor said, police also found items that relatives said were missing from the Ellerman house. Meredith’s purse was in the car, he said, as well as the missing photo of the rape victim. The driver’s licenses of Ross and Franklin were there too, Carpenter said.

“He kept these driver’s licenses as trophies, ladies and gentlemen,” the prosecutor said, speculating that this was the reason Waldon “didn’t want the expired driver’s license” of the rape victim.

Carpenter said that Waldon committed crimes “for his own personal benefit, for his own conscience, for his own ego. To show that he could do it, to show that he could do it and get away with it. To demonstrate his superior intelligence by doing it without getting caught. To attempt to commit perfect crimes.”

After Waldon fled from his car on foot, Carpenter said, he encountered Charles Gordon Wells, who was puttering in his garage in University Heights. Waldon fired on Wells, Carpenter said, getting the attention of Wells’ tenant, John Copeland, who lived above the garage. When Wells and Copeland cornered Waldon in the yard, the prosecutor said, Waldon shot Wells four times, killing him.

Waldon then turned on Copeland, Carpenter said, shooting him in the neck before he fled.

Wells’ widow, Alice Wells, sat in court all day Monday with her son, Steve.

“We’re very happy to see things under way finally. . . . It has taken 5 1/2 years, which is too darn long,” said Steve Wells. “We hope it will turn out the way things are supposed to turn out. We’re looking for justice. No vengeance or anything. Just justice. So that nobody else will be subject to this. We’re here to stick it out.”

Outside the courtroom, Carpenter called his case “pretty strong.” Over the next few weeks, Carpenter plans to show jurors models of the two murder scenes, as well as large color photographs of the victims, two of whom were burned beyond recognition. He also expects to present forensic experts and to put several of the victims on the stand, including the rape victim.

Especially in that instance, Carpenter said, the fact that Waldon is representing himself will make the testimony all the more painful.

“Presumably, he was there, and he’s going to be talking to and asking questions of the very people whom he victimized,” said the prosecutor. “That will be very difficult for them, and I think it will be very difficult for him.”