Trial in Savage Oceanside Slaying Is Nearing an End : Justice: Defendant had some of slain woman’s jewelry when he was arrested in Santa Fe, N.M.

Prosecutors portrayed Rudolph Roybal as the brutal murderer of a 65-year-old Oceanside woman, while defense attorneys said Monday in closing arguments that the evidence was circumstantial and unconvincing.

If found guilty of stabbing Yvonne Weden 13 times and killing her while burglarizing her home, the 35-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., native could face the death penalty.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Koerber told the jury that Roybal had viciously stabbed and punched Weden, breaking her ribs and then wrenching her wedding ring from her finger.

“Look at the nature of the injuries on her body,” Koerber said, pointing to a chart of Weden’s body that indicated stab wounds and bruises. “As he punched her and stabbed her, he had one goal in his mind: to eliminate the woman who recognized him . . . to kill her. And ultimately what he did to kill her was to cut her throat to silence her for all time.

“What greater symbolism is there in silencing her?”

Roybal had done some gardening for Yvonne and Paul Weden shortly before the June 10, 1989, killing and had lived with his brother’s family less than half a mile from the Wedens’ house.

Koerber has characterized his case as strong and simple. Because he worked at the Weden house, Roybal knew that Paul Weden, a night manager at a local supermarket, was rarely home at night.

Hours after the killing, Roybal took a bus back to Santa Fe, an act Koerber interpreted as fleeing the scene. Police arrested him there on an outstanding warrant and found him in possession of jewelry missing from the Weden home.

DNA evidence recovered from a cigarette butt at the Weden house also placed Roybal at the murder scene, Koerber said.

“When he stabbed her and stabbed her and stabbed her again and punctured her lungs and had her lying on the ground bleeding and dying, that’s why there are the special circumstances charged in this case,” Koerber told the jury, pounding on the lectern.

But defense attorneys Kathleen Cannon and Jack Campbell said the evidence is all circumstantial and that some of it points away from their client.

The DNA evidence and analysis of microscopic fibers found on Weden’s clothes may be consistent with the prosecution’s interpretation of Roybal as the murderer, but it is also consistent with many other scenarios, Deputy Public Defender Jack Campbell told the jury.

For example, Yvonne Weden, as well as Roybal, has a genetic makeup consistent with the DNA evidence from the cigarette butt, Campbell said.

“There are thousands, in fact millions, of people who have that kind of” genetic makeup, Campbell told the jury.

Fiber evidence was carelessly handled by police and could easily have been contaminated, Campbell said.

Campbell also pointed out to the jury that, while Roybal was found with some of the loot from the Weden home, he did not have all of it, including two men’s watches, two ladies’ watches, a gun and holster, a box of silver coins and various items of jewelry.

“Where was all this other property that was stolen? Where is it now? Well, we could ask the perpetrator, but he’s not here,” Campbell said.

Campbell has maintained that the defense does not have to show how Roybal got the jewelry that he did have.

“It doesn’t prove he killed anybody,” Campbell said outside the courtroom. “It just proves that he has the jewelry. Maybe he got it from the guy who committed the burglary, maybe he picked it up from the street.”

A blood-stained doorjamb with a smudged fingerprint probably held the key to who the murderer was, but before it could be properly examined, it was lost by police, Campbell said.

Pictures of the fingerprint on the doorjamb showed that it did not belong to Roybal, but because Weden was buried without having her prints lifted, it could not be determined if the print belonged to her, as the prosecution claimed.