Focus Shifts to Trial Location in Huber Case

If he had his druthers, the Arizona defense attorney for the man accused of killing Denise Huber and carting her body around in a freezer for three years said Friday that he does have a preference of where his client should be tried: in California, where it’s tougher to execute someone.

“We are aware that in the applicability of the death penalty, it’s apparent that California has more lenient provisions,” defense counsel Thomas K. Kelly said. “That’s clearly an advantage.”

Huber’s father, Dennis, sees it differently: “I want Arizona,” he said. “I think if you get the death penalty there they carry it out. It’s a joke here.”

Friday, 10 days after John J. Famalaro was arrested at his country club home, the issue of where the 37-year-old bearded house painter will be tried began to take center stage.

Amid growing indications investigators may be able to show the 23-year-old Newport Beach woman was murdered in Orange County, a task force of county prosecutors and forensic specialists rendezvoused in Phoenix on Friday with their Arizona counterparts to examine evidence and discuss the case.

“Your gut tells you it’s likely that Huber was kidnaped and murdered (in Orange County),” Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley said. “But we’re looking at whether we can prove she was abducted and moved. You need more than a gut instinct to prove that in court--you need witnesses or physical evidence to prove it to a jury.”

Other developments:

* Tests on what appears to be blood found at a Laguna Hills storage complex could be completed by Monday, Conley said. Famalaro was renting the storage space at the time of Huber’s disappearance. Crime lab specialists were expected to work through the weekend in an attempt to determine if the substance is human blood and, if it is, if it matches Huber’s type.

* Sources close to the case revealed Friday that Famalaro painted homes belonging to members of the Orange County law enforcement community, including two Newport Beach police officers and one prosecutor, who may have hired the handyman around the time Huber vanished in June, 1991.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer, in an odd twist, may be called as a witness in the case to testify on what could be a key issue: Investigators say Paer has told them that he remembers Famalaro being clean-shaven, as opposed to the bearded figure whom police arrested in Arizona.

Famalaro’s appearance during that period is significant because some have speculated he posed as a police officer in luring Huber to her death, and it’s generally known that most law enforcement officers don’t sport beards. Handmade replicas of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy shirts turned up in a search of Famalaro’s home.

* Defense counsel Kelly won court approval to hire an independent pathologist to examine the body, as long as it does not interfere with the family’s plans to bury Huber later this month in South Dakota next to her grandfather. The defense’s independent exam is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

* Weary of being inadvertently placed in the media spotlight, the roommate of Famalaro’s brother Warren, who lives in Lake Forest, moved out Friday.

Investigators have interviewed Warren Famalaro, a convicted child molester, several times, saying he was being considered as everything from a “witness to a suspect.”

As prosecutors from both Arizona and Orange County weighed their cache of evidence in the case Friday--including a possibly bloodstained crowbar seized from Famalaro’s home--authorities were turning their attention to the issue of jurisdiction.

Officials in both states have conferred on the issue and, at least publicly, have agreed that justice should be dispensed where the crime was committed.

To that end, Orange County officials await the results of tests on a blood-like substance found in a Laguna Hills storage locker rented by Famalaro during the time of Huber’s disappearance.

If the test confirms investigators’ suspicions the substance is Huber’s blood, that would provide evidence of a potential murder site.

Investigators already say they have evidence that Famalaro lived in Lake Forest at the time of Huber’s disappearance, bought a freezer from a Montgomery Ward & Co. store in Orange County several days later and had it shipped to the Laguna Hills storage facility.

From there, the freezer was transferred in 1992 to a San Clemente storage bin, where Famalaro requested that power be on 24 hours a day. Sometime early this year, authorities say, Famalaro rented a Ryder truck, put the freezer in it and relocated to his country club home in Dewey, Ariz.

When investigators opened the freezer July 13, they found Huber’s frozen corpse inside, her head bludgeoned, her hands cuffed, and her eyes and mouth covered in cloth and sealed in duct tape.

Law enforcement sources said the Orange County “team” included Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans, investigator Don Null, pathologist Richard Fukumoto and three additional law enforcement officers. They arrived in Phoenix to meet with officials from the local medical examiner’s office and the local prosecutor, sources said.

But Orange County prosecutors arrived too late to see some evidence. The Ryder rental truck, for example, has been released back to the truck company, sources said.

“There is a lot of information they are not privy to, but that is because it is not their case,” said Yavapai County prosecutor Tom Lindberg.

“They will, however be kept up to date on all developments because it is important for them to keep abreast of things. There will be no jurisdictional squabbling in this case. We all want the same thing.”

Conley said the representatives from the Orange County district attorney’s office were sent to Arizona to act as “backup” prosecutors.

Conley also stressed that there was no “competition” for the case.

“We are not in any way acting like the big bad prosecutors from the big city coming in to take over,” Conley said, alluding to the fact that Yavapai County (population 120,000) is not used to such high-profile cases.

“If there is a breakthrough in the next day or two and it can be proven she was murdered in Orange County,” he added, “we would have to pick up the ball quickly.”

For their part, Arizona officials say their laws dictate that Arizona has jurisdiction unless it can be shown the murder took place in Orange County.

As the defense has already pointed out, transferring the case back to Orange County may benefit the defendant if Famalaro is convicted.

California prosecutors can seek the death penalty--via gas chamber or lethal injection--only if the murder was accompanied by “special circumstances,” such as a kidnaping or other felony.

To execute someone by lethal injection--the sole means in Arizona--prosecutors have more leeway; they must simply prove the murder of Huber was “depraved” and heinous, a burden that investigators say is easily met in the Huber case.

Law enforcement sources said Friday that the number of blows Huber suffered was underestimated. It appears that instead of eight to 10 blows to the head--possibly with a hammer or crowbar--Huber might have suffered more than 12 strikes.

Defense attorney Kelly made his comments concerning his preferences on jurisdiction in an interview from his office in Prescott, Ariz.

“I’m not hoping either way, but I am trying to anticipate each potential defense and where it could work better,” Kelly said. “I have discussed with my client the advantages of trying this case in California rather than Arizona.”

Based on what he knows, Kelly predicted that Famalaro, who was indicted on first-degree murder charges Thursday, would probably be returned to face trial in Orange County.

Kelly also expressed concerns about the level of publicity the case has garnered, adding, “We have to consider that impact both in California and in Arizona in terms of selecting a fair and impartial jury.”

In his motion to have an independent forensics expert appointed, Kelly argued that it would be crucial in preparing his defense to fix a time and cause of death. At the same time, Kelly said he understood the prosecution’s concerns about releasing Huber’s body to the family for burial.

“We have made every effort to meet our needs without infringing on the family’s grief,” Kelly said.

At a hearing Friday, Yavapai County Counsel Charles Hastings offered no objections to the defense request for a private pathologist’s examination--so long as the family’s plans to bury the Huber next week are not delayed.

Said Hastings, “I think the family deserves that.”

Times staff writer Gebe Martinez contributed to this report from Dewey, Ariz., and Times staff writers Matt Lait, Jodi Wilgoren, Greg Hernandez, Michael Granberry, Lily Dizon and correspondent Jeff Bean contributed from Orange County.

* IRONIC TWIST: Famalaro may have done painting work for O.C. law enforcement officials. A30