Famalaro Hair, Blood, Saliva Samples Sought : Investigation: Arizona prosecutors say such evidence would help case if an autopsy finds that Denise Huber was sexually assaulted.

Yavapai County prosecutors Wednesday demanded blood, saliva and hair samples from murder suspect John J. Famalaro--evidence that could prove critical if a pending autopsy determines that Denise Huber was sexually assaulted.

Also included in a flurry of legal motions filed here was a defense request for an emergency hearing to bar Yavapai County sheriff’s deputies from destroying handwritten notes made during their investigation.

Requests for blood, saliva and hair samples are routine in murder cases. But Yavapai County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Laurie Berra said Wednesday that the evidence could also prove key if Huber was sexually abused by her assailant.

“We have not ruled out the possibility that she was sexually assaulted,” Berra said.

The samples are also needed for comparisons with evidence collected at Famalaro’s Prescott Country Club home--where authorities found tools and women’s clothing that appeared to be stained with blood, and also found pubic hair, said Yavapai Deputy County Counsel Thomas B. Lindberg.

Huber, then a 23-year-old waitress who lived with her parents in Newport Beach, vanished the night of June 3, 1991, after attending a rock concert in Los Angeles County. Her abandoned automobile was discovered on the Corona del Mar Freeway with a flat tire the next morning.

Her distraught parents organized what became a nationwide search, but her whereabouts remained a mystery until a paint manufacturer who had dealings with Famalaro became suspicious of a rental truck in his driveway and passed along those suspicions to Arizona authorities, who discovered Huber’s body in a freezer that was installed and kept running in the truck.

The legal demands were filed in court by Arizona prosecutors, even though there are increasing indications that Famalaro’s murder trial could be transferred to Orange County.

Defense attorney Thomas K. Kelly, who is not licensed to practice in California, said Wednesday that he has begun looking for an attorney who could represent Famalaro in Orange County.

Kelly said he would prefer that the case be moved to California, since there are more stringent requirements for proving a death penalty case. Arizona’s death penalty guidelines pose fewer problems for prosecutors, and Orange County deputy district attorneys have acknowledged that they need additional evidence if they are to pursue the death penalty against Famalaro under California law.

A decision on jurisdiction in the case could come as early as today, officials said. Authorities are awaiting the results of critical DNA testing of blood discovered in a Laguna Hills storage facility Famalaro once rented--and lived in--to help solve the issue.

Arizona law presumes a murder took place where the body was discovered. But even Arizona officials have a “gut” feeling that Huber’s fatal bludgeoning took place a short distance from the Orange County freeway where her car had a flat on June 3, 1991.

The jurisdiction debate is holding up forensic testing in the case--and the Hubers recently blamed the debate for complicating the family’s funeral plans.

Citing a lack of jurisdiction, Arizona officials last week refused to allow an Orange County forensic pathologist to view the body. But Orange County prosecutors want a chance to conduct their own autopsy and examine Huber’s remains to help them prepare for possible prosecution.

Law enforcement sources say it is likely that the body will be released as early as today, paving the way for a possible examination by Orange County pathologist Richard Fukumoto before Huber is buried.

Also awaiting testing are pieces of lumber believed to have been used in the Laguna Hills storage facility to enclose a second, upright refrigerator-freezer that authorities have also seized from Famalaro’s home.

In a recent search of the Laguna Hills warehouse, Costa Mesa police found blood in the area where the refrigerator-freezer had been installed, but tests conducted by Arizona authorities found no traces of blood in the refrigerator, which Famalaro had moved into the kitchen of the Prescott County Club home where he was living until his arrest two weeks ago.

Because of those tests results, Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Berra said Wednesday that the refrigerator might not have been used to store Huber’s body. But other law enforcement sources say the theory has not been ruled out.

Despite the uncertainty over jurisdiction, authorities are proceeding as if Famalaro’s trial on charges of killing Huber will be held in Yavapai County, where her nude, handcuffed body was discovered in Famalaro’s freezer.

The defense also filed court records waiving Famalaro’s personal appearance at his post-indictment arraignment--scheduled for Monday--and entered a written plea of not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder, and a second charge of grand theft.

The Ryder rental truck that Famalaro rented to move his personal belongings--and the freezer containing Huber’s body--from Orange County to Arizona was never returned, and the rental company reported it stolen. It was spotted in the driveway of Famalaro’s home. An electrical cord had been run from the freezer, out the back of the truck, to an outlet at the home of Famalaro’s mother, who lives in the house next door.

Also on Wednesday, defense attorneys informed county officials that a private medical examiner they hired had completed an independent examination of Denise Huber’s remains at the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office in Phoenix.

Defense attorney Kelly declined to comment on the findings of Dr. H. H. Karnitschnig, the private medical examiner, saying that his report would be prepared in the next three weeks.

Kelly said he wants access to the handwritten notes of the Yavapai sheriff’s deputies, because he fears that officers might have been improperly influenced in preparing their formal reports by public comments made by Famalaro’s former defense attorney, Lawrence W. Katz.

Katz last week announced his intention to challenge repeated searches of Famalaro’s home. Katz was later dismissed from the case in favor of Kelly, but not before Katz told reporters that he would fight to invalidate searches of his client’s home.

“I’m not saying that the (deputies) did anything wrong,” Kelly said Wednesday. “But it is possible that they read articles about Katz’s statements and considered those when preparing their reports.”