Burrus Ordered to Stand Trial in Death of Wife : Crime: The former journalist is accused of murdering the Oceanside woman, then trying to make the death appear accidental.

Former newspaper reporter John Burrus was ordered Thursday to stand trial for murder in the death of his wife of 31 years, Grace Burrus, whose bludgeoned body was found June 28, 1990, over the side of Montezuma Grade in East County.

Vista Municipal Judge Michael Harris, who presided over Burrus’ three-day preliminary hearing, said at its conclusion that “this is pretty clear in my mind” and told Deputy Dist. Atty. Garrett Randall not to bother with his own summary of the evidence against Burrus.

Harris said he found incredible the suggestion by Burrus’ defense attorney, Herb Weston, that the fatal blows to the victim’s head were caused when she fell against the emergency brake handle of her car, which had plummeted over the side of county highway S-22.

“She would have to somehow be upside down and squished between the (front) seats,” Harris said, in order to strike the brake handle.

In remarking on what monetary gain, if any, John Burrus would have in his wife’s death, Harris said, “If criminals only performed crimes where there is some true logic to the crime, it would be a fairly crime-free society.”

Harris said he found “strong suspicion” that Burrus, 69, had killed his wife and ordered him to be arraigned Jan. 6 in Vista Superior Court. Burrus remained in custody, unable to post $500,000 bail.

Weston said he had expected all along that the the case, which at first was rejected by a San Diego County grand jury, would be bound over for trial. “I’ll take 12 jurors any day over one judge,” he said.

The prosecution alleged that John Burrus delivered fatal blows to his wife’s head as she was in the bedroom of her Oceanside apartment, then put her body in her own car, drove it toward Borrego Springs and sent it over the mountainside, hoping her death would be mistaken for a traffic fatality.

She died nine days before the couple were scheduled to appear in court for their divorce trial, in which the division of assets valued at more than $500,000 was at issue.

Weston claimed that Grace Burrus crashed over the side of the highway--or, if she was slain, was murdered by someone other than his client, who retired in 1977 from the San Diego Union where he had at one time been the religion reporter.

Among Thursday’s witnesses was a criminologist from the San Diego County Sheriff’s crime laboratory, who testified that some of the bloodstains discovered on the headboard of Grace Burrus’ bed as well as a night stand beside it showed that the blood began its flight at about where a person’s head would be situated in that bed.

Randall Robinson, an expert in “blood splatter interpretation,” said he made his findings based on the shape of the blood spots, which showed the direction they were traveling from--the bed’s pillow area--before striking the headboard.

Sheriff’s Detective Terry Wisniewski said that, when he searched Burrus’ car, he found “a considerable number of tire irons” in the trunk. A medical examiner previously testified that Grace Burrus was struck at least four or five times on the left side of her head with what might have been a tire iron.