Simpson Case Called a Model for 2 Murders

A man growing desperate over problems with money was inspired by the O.J. Simpson trial to plot the murder of his ex-girlfriend and his mother for financial gain, prosecutors alleged Monday.

Paul Carasi deserves to die for luring the two to a Mother’s Day dinner in 1995 and then, aided by his new lover, stabbing them both to death in a Universal City parking garage, prosecutors told jurors in Superior Court in Santa Monica.

Carasi and Donna Kay Lee Lee fashioned their plan on the killings of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, according to the opening statement of Deputy Dist. Atty. John Gilligan, who repeatedly cited the case.

Gilligan said Carasi and Lee planned to carry out the attack in the Universal CityWalk parking garage, as secluded spot, as in the Simpson case. Then, he said, they stabbed and slashed Doris Carasi and Sonia Salinas to death.

“What was going on at that time? The O.J. case,” Gilligan said. He said the Simpson trial would be a recurring theme in the prosecution of Carasi and Lee.

Both have pleaded not guilty. Lee’s lawyer said he will address jurors Tuesday. The Carasi defense will begin later in the trial, which is expected to last two months.

Gilligan said Carasi and Lee tried to make the crime look like the work of robbers, with Carasi telling police he survived only by pretending to be knocked unconscious.

The plan ultimately fell apart when Salinas fought back and Lee was slashed in the abdomen, prosecutors said. Then, as she was trying to dump the evidence--including the murder weapon--over an embankment on the Hollywood Freeway, she locked herself out of her car, prosecutors said.

As she bled from the wound, which was deep enough to expose her intestines, Lee walked to a call box and summoned help. She told authorities she had been attacked by robbers.

But the California Highway Patrol officers who came to her aid found the bloody evidence, prosecutors said, including Salinas’ fanny pack and the murder weapon. In Lee’s car, they found bloody plastic bags, a Universal CityWalk parking stub for that night and a map marked with directions on how to get to the dining and shopping complex.

Outside court, Lee’s lawyer, Harry Hall, said there are holes in the prosecution’s case, but declined to explain, citing a gag order by Superior Court Judge Leslie Light.

Carasi’s lawyer, public defender Ralf Courtney, has repeatedly complained that he has not had time to prepare for trial, and indicated that he might reserve his opening statements until after the prosecution rests.

Rather than working in concert, the defense lawyers have been at odds, with Hall saying in open court Monday that a key point in his defense will be to show that Carasi alone had the motive, exonerating his client.