Woman Will Not Be Charged With Murder in Deputy’s Slaying

A Palmdale woman, whose husband was killed in a gun battle with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a drug raid on Monday, will not be charged with murdering a deputy who was shot to death by her husband, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Del White, 30, had been held on suspicion of murder Monday because she had scuffled with deputies raiding the couple’s Palmdale mobile home prior to the shooting between her husband, John White, 37, and deputies.

Authorities said John White killed Deputy Richard B. Hammack, 31, of Quartz Hill.

Under California law, murder charges can be brought against a killer’s accomplices.

Del White, who was not armed or injured, is scheduled to be arraigned today on lesser criminal charges stemming from the incident.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Speer of the office’s Crimes Against Peace Officers section would not specify which charges will be filed, but she ruled out murder.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials announced that the Sheriff’s Relief Foundation has established a trust fund and is seeking donations for the slain deputy’s unborn child.

Hammack’s fiance, Tammy Zeiner, is due to deliver his son in early September, officials said.

A public memorial service for Hammack has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the First Baptist Church of Lancaster.

A private interment service is scheduled Monday at a cemetery in the Bakersfield area, where Hammack’s mother lives, officials said.

Zeiner, a secretary at the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station in Lancaster, was at a San Fernando Valley hospital having an ultrasound examination Monday to determine the fetus’s sex when she was told of the shooting.

Hammack never knew he was to have a son, Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Denham said.