Survey Supports Moving Famalaro Trial Outside O.C.

Describing murder victim Denise Huber as “everybody’s daughter” and “the girl next door,” a college professor testified Friday that the man charged with killing her cannot get a fair trial in Orange County.

Edward Bronson said public awareness of the case is among the highest he has seen, based on a survey conducted at the request of attorneys for defendant John J. Famalaro.

The survey showed that 83% of the 400 residents polled were familiar with the case, and of that number, 70% already believe Famalaro is guilty and should be sentenced to death.

But under cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out several flaws in the survey, including the leading nature of one of the questions, which Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan also voiced concern about.

Bronson said potential jurors might not be as candid in a courtroom during jury selection as they are in an anonymous survey. He said they might have deeper feelings about the case than they let on or even realize.

“It only takes one person on the jury to remember some of the stuff and infect the rest of the jury,” said Bronson, a political science professor at Cal State Chico.

Famalaro, a former resident of Lake Forest, is accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and bludgeoning the 23-year-old Huber after her car broke down on the Corona del Mar Freeway in June 1991. Famalaro was arrested after authorities discovered Huber’s body in a freezer in a stolen rental truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s home in Dewey, Ariz., where he had moved.

Famalaro, 39, has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Bronson, who has been an expert witness for approximately 80 change-of-venue motions, had previously testified against a change of venue in the case of Mark Richard Hilbun a former postal worker convicted of shooting his mother and a friend to death and injuring several others during a countywide rampage.

Bronson said he initially thought it was “dubious” to try to move the Famalaro trial given the large size of the county, but he changed his mind when he began reviewing the extensive publicity, which began when Huber disappeared. He said efforts by the victim’s family to find out what happened to her--particularly a banner hung over the location on the freeway near where Huber disappeared--kept public awareness of the case high during the three years until her body was found.

Bronson said descriptions of how Huber’s body was found in the freezer created an emotional response among county residents. The publicity, he said, and the nature of the case caused “a special ability to remember.”

During an aggressive cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. James J. Mulgrew pointed out that one of the questions on the survey included information that someone had been charged with the crime and that a freezer had been found in his front yard. Mulgrew also said the survey did not include any of the legal rules that might apply to the case.

Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia said he might ask for time to conduct a smaller survey without the question, which prosecutors and the judge said was phrased in such a way that a respondent could only logically answer “guilty.”

Mulgrew was also critical of the geographical breakdown of the survey, pointing out that Santa Ana was dramatically underrepresented while Huntington Beach was overrepresented. He also indicated that the professor lacked knowledge concerning the county’s current demographics and its geography.

The change of venue hearing will resume next Friday. The judge also agreed to push back the start of jury selection in the trial to March 3.