Gambling Debts Cited as Motive in Murder

Gregory Rains, the husband of former Glendora librarian Marilyn Rains, had $14,000 in gambling debts and a $50,000 life insurance policy on his wife at the time of her murder, police investigators testified last week in court in Northern California.

The testimony against Rains, 44, was given during a preliminary hearing Friday in Shasta County Municipal Court in Redding as evidence pointing to a possible motive in the mysterious slaying of the 42-year-old librarian.

The couple was well-known in Glendora and had moved more than a year ago to Redding, where Marilyn Rains was slain.

After the preliminary hearing, Gregory Rains was ordered to stand trial on a murder charge in Shasta County Superior Court. Arraignment was set for Monday.

Defense attorney Russell Swartz called the investigators’ testimony a “smoke screen.” He said his client had been a recreational gambler for the past four years and that the couple’s credit rating was excellent and the gambling debts were always paid on time. Further, the $50,000 in life insurance was a mutual policy, secured years ago, the lawyer said.

Marilyn Rains was found dead at 2 a.m. Sept. 8, lying in the street a few blocks from her house and a few feet from her car. She had been shot and run over, police said.

Her husband, a spokesman for a religious broadcasting station, was questioned. Police later found blood, hair and bits of flesh clinging to the undercarriage of his red Chevrolet Blazer, and he was arrested.

Last week, a criminologist testified in court that the blood under the Blazer matched that of Marilyn Rains.

Swartz said Rains was on a business trip in Vacaville, 2 1/2 hours away from the murder scene, when his wife was killed.