Jury Hears of Love, Hate in Trailer Park : Trial: Defense, prosecution give differing versions of tangled events leading to nurse’s bludgeon murder.

A tangled, tawdry tale of murder and adultery unfolded Tuesday in Superior Court as prosecution and defense attorneys laid out sharply different versions of the beating death of a 34-year-old Buena Park nurse.

The elements surrounding the November, 1990, killing of Donna J. Connaty--love and hate in a Santa Ana trailer park--seem ripped from the lyrics of country-Western ballads.

Neill F. Matzen, a 37-year-old tow truck operator, faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of killing his friend’s wife. Authorities have declined to prosecute Matzen for the subsequent fatal shooting of the friend, Richard Connaty, ruling that his death in a trailer-park shoot-out was a case of self-defense.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick H. Donahue provided what he called “an overview of a complicated case” to the jury of seven men and five women.

Using a series of letters written by the defendant, showing photos of the Donna Connaty death scene and holding a solid metal bar that he said was used to bludgeon the victim, Donahue outlined his case.

It was “no secret” what happened between the Matzen and Connaty families, the prosecutor said. Neill Matzen killed Donna Connaty for the promise of $15,000 from Richard Connaty, he said. Nine days later, Matzen killed Richard Connaty, in part because his friend and his wife had been having an affair for the previous 14 months.

Matzen’s defense attorney, Deputy Public Defender Donald C. Biggs, agreed in his opening statement that “it is a complicated case. It’s complicated in its facts. The reason Donna Connaty died is as simple and as straightforward as any motive has ever been. And it is jealousy, (but) not Neill Matzen’s jealousy.”

Biggs suggested, but did not explicitly claim in his opening remarks, that Donna Connaty was killed by Cynthia Matzen, because of Cynthia Matzen’s love for Richard Connaty and her fear that the estranged Connaty couple might be reconciling.

All of the physical evidence, including several letters sent by Neill Matzen to police, a local newspaper and his wife, admitting his role in Donna Connaty’s death, can be traced to Cynthia Matzen, Biggs told the jury.

Asked during a break whether he hoped that Cindy Matzen, in the fashion of the Perry Mason television series, would stand up in the spectator section and admit her guilt, Biggs said, “I’d love it if she would, but I doubt it.”

According to court documents, Richard and Donna Connaty had a troubled marriage. Donna Connaty, a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, had once described her husband in court documents as abusive and violent toward both her and their three children, now aged 7, 9 and 11.

During their 18-month separation, which began in 1989, Richard Connaty, a 38-year-old diesel mechanic, started staying with a friend at the Coach Royal Mobile Home Park in Santa Ana. He was friendly with Neill and Cynthia Matzen, who lived in the next trailer and shared his interests in trucks and riding in the desert in off-road vehicles.

Neill Matzen said in one of the letters he later wrote that on one occasion he had observed his wife and Richard Connaty outside Connaty’s Buena Park home, having sex in Connaty’s truck. Cynthia Matzen later denied that the incident occurred, but acknowledged to police that she and Richard Connaty had been having an affair for 14 months.

Despite the affair, Neill Matzen said in a letter that he remained friendly with Richard Connaty.

Matzen explained in one of his letters that Richard Connaty, fearing he might lose his home and custody of his three children, “was dropping hints of doing away with his wife. . . . Then he dropped the bomb. He told me that he was going to refinance his house to do remodeling and, if his problem was solved before December, he would pay me $15,000.”

Richard Connaty then outlined the details of how and where his wife should be killed, Matzen wrote. On the day of the murder, Nov. 24, 1990, Matzen wrote, he went to the Connatys’ home on the premise of fixing a gas leak.

Once in the house, Matzen beat Donna Connaty to death with a metal bar, prosecutors allege.

Matzen called his wife to pick him up a few hours later, prosecutors say, then drove to the desert to rendezvous with Richard Connaty and both families’ children.

On Dec. 2, a week after the murder, Matzen wrote that he told Richard Connaty he would not permit him to continue the affair with his wife, an ultimatum Matzen said led to the shoot-out the next day.

According to Matzen, Richard Connaty stormed into the Matzen trailer while the couple were still in bed, shouting, “You killed my wife!”

Connaty fired once with a handgun, hitting Neill Matzen in the left shoulder, then fled after the semiautomatic weapon jammed, according to police.

Neill Matzen grabbed a .357 magnum handgun and pursued Connaty, shooting him once in the abdomen as Connaty turned toward him, police said.

With both men wounded, Cynthia Matzen rushed to aid Richard Connaty, who died a short while later, Matzen’s attorney pointed out. Later that day, Neill Matzen was arrested in connection with the beating death of Donna Connaty, but he was later released because of insufficient evidence. However, in the days that followed, Cynthia Matzen provided key evidence against her husband, attorneys said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Neill Matzen had fled to the desert, where he mailed his letters to Buena Park police, a local newspaper and his wife, detailing his role in the two killings and announcing plans to commit suicide. He was captured by police Dec. 14 inside a shed in Fontana after abandoning his car and hitchhiking through Riverside County.