DeHoyos Found Guilty in Murder of Girl, 9; Jury to Rule on Sanity

Richard Lucio DeHoyos was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder in the asphyxiation and rape and of a 9-year-old girl abducted as she walked home from school in 1989.

The jury deliberated for two days before finding DeHoyos, 34, guilty of murder, kidnaping for purposes of child molestation, rape and sodomy of Nadia Puente of Santa Ana. They also found that the crimes were committed under four special circumstances, any one of which is enough to send him to the gas chamber.

But before the jurors may consider DeHoyos’ penalty, they must decide whether he was sane when he lured the fourth-grader into his car and took her to the Ha’ Penny Inn in Santa Ana. There she was sexually assaulted and asphyxiated in the bathtub. According to a confession DeHoyos gave to police in San Antonio, Tex., where he was arrested, he put the girl’s body in a trash can and dumped it in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

DeHoyos’ attorney, Milton C. Grimes, called five psychiatrists and psychologists to testify during the trial. They concurred that DeHoyos was mentally ill as a result of organic brain damage from various injuries, and that he suffers from personality disorders. One testified that DeHoyos had nine legal and common law wives and 10 children. Two of the wives said that DeHoyos had tried to kill them while he was in enraged.

Grimes told the jury that DeHoyos was distraught after losing his job at a Taco Bell in Westminster on March 20, 1989, the morning of the killing.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert C. Gannon Jr., who declined to comment on the verdict, countered that many of DeHoyos’ actions before and after the killing were those of a rational person.

On Tuesday, the same six-man, six-woman jury will reconvene for the sanity phase of the trial. Grimes said he expects to call four mental health experts--some of whom testified earlier.

If DeHoyos is found insane, he would be sentenced to a state mental facility for an indefinite period; his fitness for release would be reviewed every two years.

If the jury finds him sane, it would convene a third time to decide whether he should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.

Before setting the date for the sanity hearing, Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey asked DeHoyos if he wanted to withdraw his insanity plea, noting that earlier in the proceedings, DeHoyos had asked when such a move would be in order.

Dickey reminded DeHoyos that if he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, “You still could be committed to a mental institution for the rest of your life.”

DeHoyos indicated no desire to change his plea.

In addition to six television crews, the family of the victim and numerous spectators, there were two additional bailiffs in the courtroom when the verdict was read. But there were no outbursts or animal noises directed at cameras from DeHoyos, as had happened earlier.

Grimes said he and his associate, Marne Glass, “have paid a lot of attention to him in preparing for . . . the cameras and the microphones and the many people. . . . We give him a little talk before he comes into court” whenever they expect a large media presence.

Grimes said DeHoyos “is doing as well as can be expected. . . . He’s always been remorseful about what happened. He has accepted the fact that he must receive some punishment, if that’s the decision of the jury. He said he really, truly recognizes that he needs some help. That’s how he’s doing.”

The Puente family declined to comment on the verdict.