Family Triple-Murder Case Goes to Jury

Sibling rivalry and hatred drove a Fullerton gas station mechanic, Edward Charles III, to murder his parents and brother and then set their bodies on fire in a car, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

“He didn’t like his family. He hated them. That’s his motive,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent. “He couldn’t have killed them if he didn’t.”

Deputy Public Defender Mark Davis, however, told jurors his 23-year-old client had no reason to commit murder, that there was “no jealousy, no hate, no greed, no nothing.” He pointed to testimony from those who know Charles that murder would be totally out of his character.

“There is no ‘why’ here,” Davis said.

The statements from the lawyers came during closing arguments in the Superior Court trial and marked the first time authorities have stated a motive in the shocking 1994 triple murder in the affluent Sunny Hills area of Fullerton.

Charles could face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing his father, Edward Charles Jr., 55, a Hughes Aircraft engineer; his mother, Dolores, 47, a self-employed typist; and brother Danny, 19, a promising opera singer and performer in his second year at USC.

The bodies of all three were found in the family Honda, which was torched in a La Mirada school parking lot on Nov. 7, 1994. The brother, stuffed in the trunk, had been stabbed. The father had been bludgeoned and the mother possibly strangled, authorities said.

Edward Charles III, the only other child in the family, was arrested at the family’s house two days later.

During his closing remarks Tuesday, Brent said Charles sought to destroy the bodies in a car fire and concoct an alibi as part of repeated efforts to cover up his deeds.

“If he’s not the one, then why the elaborate cover-up?” Brent asked.

Brent said the defendant telephoned from Orange County Jail asking his grandfather, who lived with the family, to take responsibility for the slayings and later wrote an incriminating letter that was to be used to make the killings look like a robbery.

The prosecutor said Charles was jealous of his brother, faced disapproval from his parents over his girlfriend, and had also argued with his parents over $50,000 he wanted from them to buy a gas station.

But Davis contended the prosecution lacked proof of a motive, and is relying on unreliable evidence, which he described as largely circumstantial.

Davis told jurors that Charles did not write the incriminating letter, that it came from a jail inmate seeking special treatment from authorities. A defense handwriting expert said the letter did not match samples of Charles’ handwriting since the murder, although Brent suggested the defendant could have changed his writing style.

The defense attorney acknowledged how “cold” it was for Charles to ask his grandfather to take the blame, but told jurors the young man was confused and desperate about being jailed on a charge that could bring a death sentence.

The attorneys are expected to conclude their closing arguments today. If Charles is found guilty of the triple murder, jurors would come back for a second trial phase to determine whether he should be sentenced to death.