Accused Killer Arraigned in Sixth Slaying : Crime: Prosecutors file murder complaint against Cleophus Prince Jr. in fatal attack on an East San Diego woman.

San Diego prosecutors lodged a sixth murder charge Monday against accused serial killer Cleophus Prince Jr., contending that he killed a 38-year-woman who lived in a neighboring apartment complex more than a year ago.

Prince, 23, whose arrest in Alabama and extradition to San Diego was preceded by the largest police manhunt in the city’s history, was arraigned June 17 on five counts of murder and 14 other charges including rape, burglary, battery, assault and indecent exposure.

He is charged with killing five women in the Clairemont and University City areas from Jan. 12 to Sept. 13, 1990, a rampage that prompted women to keep baseball bats under their beds and avoid daytime showers. (One of the victims was killed on her way to the shower.)

The district attorney’s office added the May 21, 1990 murder of Elissa Keller to the list Monday and charged Prince with six additional burglary counts. In all, prosecutors have filed 26 charges against Prince, who has pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Keller lived with her 18-year-old daughter at Colina Park Terrace on Trojan Avenue, a block away from an apartment Prince moved into less than three weeks before the killing. Her nude body, stabbed repeatedly, was propped up against a bed when her daughter discovered her.

In recent weeks, Keller’s daughter identified her mother’s 14-carat gold-nugget ring that police said had been taken by Prince and found in the possession of another man accused of theft, according to Loren Mandel, Prince’s attorney.

“I’ve been informed that (the evidence) is a ring that is in the possession of a thief who claimed he got it from Prince,” said Mandel of the alternate public defender’s office. “That’s how they tie him to this. Whether it’s (Keller’s) ring or whether it was stolen during the killing, I don’t know.”

Prosecutors declined to discuss evidence in the Keller slaying.

At a hearing Monday to discuss evidence in the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Lamborn filed four new attempted burglary charges and two burglary charges in addition to the murder charge. All of the burglaries related to the new counts occurred from April to December of last year, and all of the victims were women, Lamborn said.

Two of the counts involve burglary attempts four days apart at the same apartment occupied by two women. One of the counts involves a burglary at Keller’s apartment.

In all, prosecutors have filed 10 burglary charges and five attempted burglary charges against Prince, all of which were said to have occurred between February of last year and February of this year.

In addition to the six murders, he is charged with one count of rape, one count of battery, one count of assault and two counts of indecent exposure.

“He was a busy man who who was a prolific burglar and liked to kill,” Lamborn said.

Mandel said Prince, who appeared at Monday’s arraignment, was “not the kind of guy who would commit murder.”

The additional charges have been filed against Prince, Mandel said, to buttress the weak parts of the government’s overall case.

“It’s sort of, where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” he said. “You try and file as many counts as possible so, if a jury has doubts on some of them, you combine some of your strong counts with some relatively weak counts.”

Prosecutors have already notified Mandel that they may seek the death penalty if Prince is convicted.

At Monday’s arraignment before Municipal Judge Patricia A.Y. Cowett, Prince stared straight ahead as the new charges were read. He answered, “Yes ma’am,” four times when Cowett questioned him about whether he understood his constitutional rights.

Cowett granted Mandel’s request to push the date of Prince’s preliminary hearing--when it is determined whether there is enough evidence for him to stand trial--from Sept. 13 to Jan. 13. The preliminary hearing is expected to last two weeks, attorneys said.

Faced with 40,000 pages of evidence, depositions and other discovery material, Mandel said the extension is necessary for him to absorb fully the background of the case.

Keller’s murder was the fourth in the series Prince committed, prosecutors allege, although it is different from the others in several ways.

Four of the victims, for example, were from 18 to 21 years old. The fifth, Pamela Clark, 42, is believed by police to have been killed when she surprised the intruder during the fatal attack on her daughter. Keller was 38.

Although the five other victims were killed in University City or Clairemont, Keller was slain in East San Diego.

Prince was arrested March 3 in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., and, after a lengthy extradition process, booked into County Jail last month. He is being held without bail.