Judge Approves Change of Venue for Yosemite Triple Murder Trial

A judge in Mariposa County agreed Monday to move the trial of Cary Stayner for the 1999 slaying of three Yosemite tourists, with Los Angeles among the five new venues being considered.

Judge Thomas Hastings ordered the swap after defense attorneys argued that Stayner could not get a fair trial in Mariposa, where the county’s 17,200 residents have wrestled with the details of the sensational murder case for more than two years.

Stayer, 40, appeared Monday in Mariposa’s small, Gold Rush-era courthouse outfitted in an orange jumpsuit and shackles. For the first time since his arrest two years ago he sported a completely shaved head.

Aside from Los Angeles, the possible new locations for the trial are Santa Clara, San Francisco, Colusa and Sacramento counties.

Marcia A. Morrissey, Stayner’s Santa Monica-based attorney, asked that the trial be held either in Los Angeles or San Francisco, which have large jury pools. Prosecutors, who did not oppose Morrissey’s request for the venue change, suggested the three other Northern California sites.

The five potential choices will be reviewed by the state Judicial Council’s administrative office, which will make recommendations to the judge based on space, security and staffing availability in each of the locations. Earlier this month, Los Angeles was selected for the Jan. 22 trial of a highly publicized San Francisco dog-mauling case.

The prime issue for the opposing attorneys is the potential for finding a jury pool untainted by media accounts of the killings. Hastings is expected to make a final pick during a Dec. 17 hearing.

Stayner’s case drew international attention after a Eureka woman, her teenage daughter and a family friend turned up missing in February 1999 from the Cedar Lodge outside the main gate of Yosemite National Park. The bodies of Carole Sund, 15-year-old Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, 16, were discovered several weeks later in remote spots one county north of the park.

Within weeks authorities arrested several suspects from the Central Valley drug world but none were charged in the case. Stayner, a handyman at the Cedar Lodge, went undetected until he was arrested for the July 1999 murder of Yosemite naturalist Joie Ruth Armstrong and confessed to killing the three tourists.

The case attracted widespread attention in part because of the circumstances of Stayner’s upbringing. His younger brother, Steven, was abducted as a child by a pedophile but managed to escape seven years later, only to die as a young adult in a motorcycle accident. The brother’s story became a book and a TV movie.

Stayner pleaded guilty last year in federal court to Armstrong’s slaying after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But such an agreement is unlikely in the Mariposa County case. Prosecutors are expected to push hard for the death penalty.

Trial is set for Feb. 25, though the defense will almost certainly ask for a delay.