Father Ordered to Trial in Children’s Suffocation

Their divorce and child custody dealings had begun only weeks earlier when David Von Haden allegedly called his estranged wife and said: “It’s all over.”

Minutes later, Laurie Von Haden rushed to her Yorba Linda home to find her two young children dead, allegedly at the hands of their father, who wounded himself in an apparent suicide attempt.

A judge on Wednesday ordered David Von Haden to stand trial on murder charges in the suffocation of his son and daughter in February, ruling that testimony about threats he made to his wife and other evidence showed “reasonable cause” for the case to proceed.

The defendant, who sat impassively during the brief preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Gregg L. Prickett in Fullerton, faces a potential death sentence if convicted in the slayings of his 4-year-old son, Cody, and 2-year-old daughter, Courtney.

The children’s mother, Laurie Von Haden, and other family members attended the court hearing.

“You’ve just got to try and cope,” said Darrell Knight, Laurie Von Haden’s brother, after the judge’s ruling. “It’s pretty tough. . . . Just mostly we miss the kids.”

David Von Haden, 35, is accused of suffocating the children on Feb. 22, less than two weeks before a court hearing with his wife on child custody and divorce matters.

The children were found dead that evening lying on a bed with toys in the master bedroom, the girl clutching a stuffed animal. Von Haden, who was found next to the preschoolers, was bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest.

Inside the family’s garage, detectives said, Von Haden had smashed the windows and tore up the seats of the 1993 Ford Explorer his wife was seeking in the divorce.

David Von Haden, a washer-dryer repairman, and his estranged wife, a clerk at a photo lab, had been married four years before separating Jan. 7.

Laurie Von Haden filed a petition on Feb. 9 for custody of the children, according to court documents. She indicated in the papers that she was afraid of her husband and was seeking exclusive use of the family home in an unincorporated area near Yorba Linda.

“I fear for the well-being of my children and I cannot tolerate the psychological abuse,” Laurie Von Haden, 33, said in her divorce petition.

The killings culminated a day of threats from David Von Haden, who had visitation rights and had picked the children up from day care that afternoon, Sheriff’s Investigator Roger Neumeister testified Wednesday.

Shortly before police found the bodies, Von Haden allegedly called his wife and made threats, prompting her to call authorities.

“He said, ‘You [expletive] with my feelings enough,”’ Neumeister testified.

Earlier that day, Neumeister testified, the defendant allegedly threatened a man Laurie Von Haden was dating.

Von Haden, who lost his left lung and nearly died from the gunshot wound, remains in Orange County Jail without bail.

He was ordered to appear in Orange County Superior Court on Sept. 3 to enter a plea to the murder charges, and a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders that makes him eligible for a death sentence. Prosecutors are expected to decide within the next two months if they will seek a death penalty against Von Haden.