Most in Formerly Quiet Town Are Glad to See Murder Case Go : Reaction: Some like the excitement, but many don’t want the expense or bad publicity of a high-profile trial.

Sitting on a bench in the grassy, shady park that surrounds the Yavapai County Courthouse, 16-year-old Eric Moore said he had been counting on John J. Famalaro’s murder trial to liven up what has been a lackluster summer.

“I was hoping it would stay in town so we would have something going on,” the ponytailed teen-ager said Friday between bites of french fries.

But there aren’t many other locals who share Moore’s disappointment that the house painter charged with killing Denise Huber and stashing her body in a deep freezer will stand trial in Orange County instead of here.

Many residents say good riddance.

“I was born and raised here, and back then we didn’t have bodies in freezers,” said resident Marge Weiland.” It’s a grisly thing and I’m glad it’s going back to California.”

Others said they didn’t want to pay the cost of a high-profile murder trial when the murder didn’t even happen here. Many just want their quiet town to return to normal.

“We don’t need the publicity,” said 52-year-old Art Mendibles, a Prescott native. “I just want to live my life. I don’t watch the news or read the newspaper. I don’t even care about O.J.”

Longtime resident Helen Maze, out shopping downtown with her grandchildren Friday, smiled broadly when she learned that the murder trial will be held in Orange County.

“I think it’s just great, and you know why? Because I just know I would have been called on to sit on that jury,” she said.

Though Famalaro was indicted here last week, authorities decided to move the trial to California after blood tests showed that Huber may have died in a Laguna Hills storage bin where Famalaro was living. It was unknown Friday whether the former Lake Forest handyman will fight extradition.

Maze said the murder case has been the talk of the town ever since Huber’s frozen, handcuffed body was found in a freezer inside a stolen rental truck parked outside Famalaro’s Prescott Country Club home. Huber, 23, had vanished alongside the Corona del Mar Freeway more than three years ago after a tire blew out on her car.

“I think it’s all so tragic,” Maze said.” This is a small town and people care quite a bit about things that happen here. At the beauty shop, that’s all anyone talks about. I always thought we would be exempt from this kind of thing.”

On Friday, Prescott Mayor Daiton Rutkowski, 50, was busy mixing milkshakes and belting out a Jimmy Buffet tune behind the counter of his De Ja Vu soda fountain. The mayor and several of his loyal customers agreed that the trial was something they didn’t need.

“A person should be tried where they committed the crime,” Rutkowski said. “It’s also been a lot of undue attention. You don’t like negative publicity to put a stigma on your community.”

Tom Garrow, a 50-year-old real estate salesman, echoed the mayor’s sentiments and said he had been particularly concerned about the financial strain on the county had the case been tried in Arizona.

“I don’t think it belongs in this community just because the body was discovered here,” Garrow said. “Economically, we should not have been strapped with a crime from another state.”

At the Yavapai County Courthouse, which has been besieged with media and other out-of- towners since Famalaro’s July 13 arrest, employees expressed relief.

“This whole thing has just jolted me out of my seat,” said 56-year-old Joanne Remender, a deputy clerk.” It’s usually so quiet here, so reserved and serene and peaceful. It’s a different pace than in California. Some days it got so bad that I just had to go outside and sit in the park just to get away.”

For Yavapai County sheriff’s spokeswoman Laurie Berra, saying goodby to the case is an overdue pleasure.

“I’m so maxed on overtime, I’m above the level that’s allowed by the county,” said Berra, who has fielded calls from the local and national media during the past two weeks. “I’ve got to take some time off--and I need some.”

In the six years she has worked for the Sheriff’s Department, Berra said, she has never seen a case like this, with radio, television and newspaper reporters swarming around her office seeking any new bits of information.

“I’m very relieved because now I can get back to my family and work eight hours a day instead of 12 or 15,” she said Friday morning. “There’s a point where you’re getting paged at 10, 10:30 at night, 12 at night--it tries your patience.”

Already, life at the sheriff’s office was returning to normal, with local folks buzzing about a disturbance in the jail Thursday afternoon in which a group of inmates--not including Famalaro--stomped on the floor, stuffed linens in the toilet and started a small fire. This, Berra said, is typical.

“I think they didn’t like the tuna,” Berra said. “They just get cranky and they put their sheets down the toilet and it leaks onto our desks. We’ve had to pump out our office a few times.”

Those in the cell where the trouble occurred were denied visitors, mattresses, blankets and hot food for a week.

Said Yavapai Sheriff Buck Buchanan: “This is a jail, not a hotel.”