Closing Arguments Set in Obsessed Fan’s Trial
Defense and prosecution attorneys rested their cases in the murder trial of Robert Bardo on Monday after an investigator testified about sound tests conducted at slain actress Rebecca Schaeffer’s apartment house in the Fairfax district. Superior Court Judge Dino Fulgoni, who is hearing the case without a jury, scheduled closing arguments for today.
Bardo, the obsessed fan who pursued the 21-year-old star of “My Sister Sam” for two years, has admitted shooting her to death on July 18, 1989, as she answered the door at her apartment. Bardo’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Stephen Galindo, has presented psychiatric evidence in an effort to show that Bardo was not in his right mind and did not form the specific intent to kill Miss Schaeffer until he was at her door.
Bardo, 21, of Tucson, Ariz., told a psychiatrist he shot on impulse because Schaeffer was “arrogant” and told him to go away. The prosecution contends that Bardo premeditated the killing.
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