Appeals Panel Denies Delay in Famalaro Trial

The 4th District Court of Appeal has denied a motion to delay the murder trial of John J. Famalaro, scheduled to start Monday.

Famalaro’s attorneys, in a last-minute attempt to have the trial moved outside Orange County, had asked the appellate court to consider overturning a Superior Court judge’s recent decision to hold the trial locally.

The appellate court declined to consider hearing the petition filed by defense attorneys Monday. If the panel had agreed to become involved, it would probably have pushed back the start of the trial by several weeks. Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin Monday, with a pool of about 1,000 potential jurors.

Last month, Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, who will preside over the trial, ruled that Famalaro would be tried in Orange County. Among the reasons Ryan cited were the size of the potential jury pool and the time that has elapsed since victim Denise Huber’s disappearance and Famalaro’s arrest.

Famalaro, 39, a former resident of Lake Forest, is accused of kidnapping Huber, then sexually assaulting and bludgeoning her to death after her car broke down on the Corona del Mar Freeway in June 1991.

Huber, 23, had been missing for three years when Famalaro was arrested in July 1994 after authorities discovered her body in a freezer in a stolen rental truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s home in Dewey, Ariz.

In fighting for a change of venue, Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia cited the approximately 250 newspaper articles published about Huber’s disappearance and murder as evidence that an impartial jury could not be found among the county’s population. He also cited a poll conducted on behalf of the defense that showed an overwhelming number of respondents were aware of the murder case and believed Famalaro was guilty and should be executed.

Gumlia could not be reached for comment Wednesday.