Blame Shifted in Murder-for-Hire Case

Lawyers for three people accused of a 1989 murder-for-hire plot each sought, in closing arguments Monday, to shift responsibility to others for the death of a retired Mission Viejo stockbroker.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. David L. Brent told jurors that the killing of 72-year-old David Werner--who was smothered, beaten and stabbed in his bed--was the work of people who were “sick, (with) a complete, callous disregard for human life and its consequences. These were people . . . who had black hearts.”

The jury will begin deliberating after hearing instructions from Judge Donald A. McCartin this morning.

Werner’s daughter, 43-year-old Deborah Werner, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. Facing the same charges are Miguel (Mike) Ruiz, 22, of Huntington Beach; and Charles Clemmons, 21, of Anaheim.

Because all three are also charged with the special circumstance of murder for financial gain, they face possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted.

Prosecutors charged that Deborah Werner, with the help of her own daughter and several friends, arranged and paid for Ruiz and Clemmons to slip through the unlocked door of the townhouse she shared with her father to commit the murder.

Deborah Werner’s attorney, Jack M. Earley, argued that it was the victim who had “a black heart,” contending that he abused and mistreated his daughter for years.

Earley acknowledged to the jury that co-defendants Ruiz and Clemmons might be guilty of carrying out the murder. But Deborah Werner’s only “moral responsibility,” he said, was for speaking ill of her father and wishing him dead in front of others, and, after the killing, of participating in a cover-up.

The real mastermind of the killing, Earley said, was the chief prosecution witness: Carrie Marie Chidester. The 21-year-old Huntington Beach woman pleaded guilty last year to her role in the killing, receiving a maximum 11-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.

Chidester testified that she was an intimate of a group of drug-taking, unemployed young people in Huntington Beach who frequented an after-hours dance club, a group that included Ruiz and Clemmons, as well as Deborah Werner’s daughter, Cindy Diebolt. Diebolt is awaiting trial for solicitation to commit murder.

Ruiz’s attorney, Gary L. Proctor, told jurors that his client did not commit the murder, but said that co-defendant Clemmons might have.

It’s possible, Proctor argued, that Clemmons may have called Deborah Werner numerous times from Ruiz’s phone, and may have driven Ruiz’s truck to Werner’s townhouse, using directions written on the back of one of Ruiz’s phone bills.

Clemmons’ attorney, James G. Merwin, who did not put on a defense, told jurors that prosecutors had not proved their case against his client.

But the prosecutor hammered away at Deborah Werner, Ruiz and Clemmons, saying the right people were facing the right charges, regardless of the defense attorneys’ efforts to shift responsibility.

Acknowledging that Marie Chidester was a “broker” in the plot, recruiting Ruiz and Clemmons, Brent, the deputy district attorney, said that Deborah Werner was in fact the “mastermind” of her father’s killing.

While she might have thought she had “reason after reason” to kill her father, including mental abuse, “they’re not good reasons” to commit murder.

As for Ruiz and Clemmons, Brent said, “their motive was money”--a personal check for $3,000 that Deborah Werner later stopped payment on.

“I don’t know about you folks,” Brent told jurors, “and this is a little screwy, because if I were going to commit a murder I’d want cash up front, not a check afterwards.”

However, just because the defendants were “not real sophisticated,” Brent said, their work was no less lethal for David Werner.

Deborah Werner “hired some thugs to kill her father,” Brent said. “And whether this guy, her father, was a prince or not . . . his first concern as he’s being killed is . . . ‘Debbie, Debbie, get out of the house!’ Those are the words that are related” by witnesses.