Woman Accused in Alleged Hit Must Stand Trial

An Orange County judge ruled Wednesday that a woman accused in the alleged contract killing of two Huntington Beach doctors must stand trial for murder but expressed doubt that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict her.

Judge Everett W. Dickey delivered the ruling after an unusual day of testimony in which prosecutors turned a newspaper reporter into their star witness during a preliminary hearing for Adriana Vasco.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Schwarm based his case almost entirely on the reporter’s interview with Vasco, who allegedly said she watched from the gunman’s car as the couple were fatally shot in 1999 along a lonely stretch of Ortega Highway.

Prosecutors called on the Orange County Register reporter to testify after an earlier ruling in which Dickey threw out a confession Vasco gave to sheriff’s homicide detectives.

Dickey concluded that the newspaper interview was enough to satisfy the low standards required at a preliminary hearing. But, he added, “it may not be for trial.”

Friends and relatives of Vasco wept after Wednesday’s hearing, saying they had expected to celebrate her homecoming and see her reunited with her two young children.

“We’re upset, very disappointed,” said Vasco’s sister, Norma Luna. “We still feel she’s innocent.”

Vasco’s attorney, Robert Viefhaus, said he will push for a trial within the next 60 days, claiming that the preliminary hearing showed how little evidence prosecutors have against his client.

A district attorney’s office spokeswoman, however, welcomed the ruling, saying prosecutors believe they can convince a jury that Vasco played a key role in what officials have described as a professional hit gone awry.

Vasco is accused, along with her former boyfriend Dennis Godley, of helping Dr. Kenneth C. Stahl arrange the murder of his wife for about $30,000. Investigators believe that at the last moment, the shooter--who they claim was Godley--for some reason turned the gun on the doctor as well.

Reporter Testifies About Interview

Two weeks ago, Dickey dealt prosecutors a major setback when he threw out Vasco’s statements to detectives, saying Orange County sheriff’s investigators Brian Heaney and Felipe Villalobos showed a “flagrant disregard” for Vasco’s constitutional rights during interrogations.

On Wednesday, despite dozens of objections from media attorneys, Dickey ordered reporter Bill Rams to testify about a jailhouse interview he conducted with Vasco in January.

Rams testified that Vasco told him she had tried to convince Stahl to call off the killing but he wouldn’t listen. Rams said she also told him that she watched Stahl give Godley $30,000 in a parking lot and that Godley threatened her life if she got in the way. Then, Rams testified, Vasco told him she had watched as Godley shot the couple.

Citing California’s Shield Law, which protects the rights of journalists called to testify in court cases, Dickey refused to allow Viefhaus to question the reporter about any of Vasco’s unpublished statements during the interview.

Rams was on the stand for much of the day, but his testimony was limited to what was published in his stories.