Defense Will Focus on Saving Famalaro’s Life

Acknowledging the odds are stacked against them, attorneys for murder suspect John J. Famalaro said their chief concern is saving their client from the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering a young Newport Beach woman and stowing her remains in a freezer.

Revealing a key element of their defense strategy for the first time, veteran deputy public defenders Leonard Gumlia and Denise Gragg carefully treaded the question of whether their client is guilty, stressing instead that the public has yet to see a “full picture” of Orange County’s most notorious murder suspect.

Famalaro “is not the monster he has been depicted to be,” said Gragg, whose attempts to depict her client as a caring human will include testimony he once risked his own life to save a woman being held at knifepoint. “The only public image of him now is one that is linking him to everyone from [serial killers] Jeffrey Dahmer to Son of Sam. That’s not who he is.”

Famalaro’s trial on charges he abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered 23-year-old Denise Huber was scheduled to begin Monday in Orange County Superior Court but has been delayed two weeks. Prosecutors have refused to discuss the case before trial.

While the defense attorneys declined to say whether Famalaro will testify during his trial or whether they will even fight the murder charge, they said their focus will be on disproving the kidnapping and sexual assault allegations that could send Famalaro to his own death.

“The facts are, he’s found with a dead body,” Gragg conceded. “The facts also are, in our opinion, that there is no evidence of a kidnapping and no evidence of sodomy. That’s how we think the facts will shake out.”

If Famalaro is convicted, the attorneys will face the most difficult of defense burdens: convincing a jury that the man they just labeled a murderer deserves some sympathy. Gragg insisted that no matter what the jury decides, Famalaro does not deserve to die.

“This is a case where the media for three years has been aimed at the proposition that Mr. Famalaro is guilty of heinous crimes. There are valid arguments as to why he is not guilty” of all the charges, she said. “There are even more valid arguments as to why this is not a person who should die.”

A conviction will also set the stage for drawn-out testimony about Famalaro’s background--which up until now has remained largely contradictory and mystifying.

The attorneys said that is due in part to legal limits on what they can say about the case.

“The public has already been educated to one view of John and we want to make them aware that there is another side of John,” Gragg said. “But, our hands are tied as to how much information we can give.”

Defense attorneys said they are prepared to call to the witness stand up to 40 people “who have known Famalaro his whole life” and will testify on his behalf.

“We could probably put on 100 people who thought John Famalaro was a caring human being,” said Gumlia, who is lead attorney on the case.

Among other things, the jury will likely be told about an incident where Famalaro saved a woman who was being mugged by a man holding a knife to her throat, Gumlia said.

“He came from behind and wrestled the knife away from the guy,” Gumlia said.

Huber had been missing for three years when the 39-year-old former Lake Forest handyman was arrested in July 1994 after authorities discovered her body in a freezer in a stolen rental truck parked outside Famalaro’s home in Dewey, Ariz.

The defense team said it has no choice but to be realistic about their client’s fate, especially since losing repeated bids to have Famalaro tried outside of Orange County. They believe heavy media coverage of the bizarre case prevents him from getting a fair trial here.

“I am about as pessimistic about that as I have ever been,” Gumlia said. “There are going to be people sitting on this case who know about the facts of this case and as soon as evidence is presented they are going to start remembering what they read, which might be partly true and partly false.”

The defense is still holding out hope that its most recent request to bar evidence will be granted by the 4th District Court of Appeal. The defense is trying to overturn a judge’s ruling that three searches of Famalaro’s Arizona home were done legally, which allows the prosecution to present crucial evidence at trial.

“In terms of the prospects for Mr. Famalaro, we are extremely discouraged about where this case is headed,” Gumlia said of the defense setbacks. “I’ve been practicing law since 1981 in this county and I never felt a mood around a case that everything is going through the motions with a preordained result, that no matter what we do or say, it’s going to be rejected even if it’s correct.”

Preliminary screening of 1,200 potential jurors had been scheduled to begin Monday. But the terminal illness of Gragg’s sister has pushed that process back to April 7. Jury selection is expected to last several weeks before testimony begins.