Death Upheld for L.A. Woman

A former Los Angeles nurse should be executed for arranging the murder of her housemate for insurance money, the California Supreme Court decided Monday.

The unanimous decision in the case of Maureen McDermott marked the first time the state high court has considered a death sentence of a woman since California reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

McDermott was a 37-year-old nurse at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center when she was arrested in the 1985 murder of her housemate, Stephen Eldridge. She had no previous criminal history.

She challenged her death sentence on a variety of grounds. She contended that her defense lawyer had been inadequate, that no evidence existed to link her to the crime other than the hired killers’ testimony, and that the prosecutor committed misconduct.

The court, in an opinion by Justice Joyce L. Kennard, rejected all McDermott’s claims.

A spokeswoman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said his office was pleased with the ruling, but a lawyer for McDermott insisted his client is innocent.

“The California Supreme Court today affirmed the conviction of an innocent woman who received an unfair trial,” said Steffan Imhoff, a Del Mar lawyer. “The only evidence against her came from the testimony of a psychotic homicidal maniac with multiple personalties.”

McDermott is one of 13 women and 603 men on California’s death row. No date has been set for her execution, and additional appeals are pending.

The man she hired to kill Eldridge, Jimmy Luna, a hospital co-worker, testified against her and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Two brothers that Luna hired to help him in the murder were granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their cooperation.

McDermott and Eldridge, a landscaper, owned a house together in Van Nuys. Each bought a $100,000 life insurance policy naming the other as beneficiary.

In the months before Eldridge’s murder, the relationship between the roommates deteriorated, the court said in its ruling. Eldridge complained that McDermott was messy and chided her about her pets. McDermott was upset about the way Eldridge treated her animals.

In February 1985, McDermott told Luna, a hospital co-worker and friend, of her plan to kill Eldridge. She offered Luna $50,000--half of the insurance proceeds--to commit the murder. She said she wanted the killing to look like a “homosexual murder” because she thought that the police then would not investigate the gay man’s slaying vigorously.

A first attempt on Eldridge’s life in March 1985 failed. Luna and an accomplice went to the house, and Eldridge opened the door. They forced their way inside, but Eldridge eventually escaped.

The second attempt succeeded on April 28, 1985. McDermott agreed to leave a front bedroom window unlocked and told Luna to tie her up and hit her to make her look like a robbery victim, the court said, recounting evidence from the trial.

When Luna and his accomplices entered the house at 8:15 p.m., Eldridge was not at home. McDermott was alone. She told him to cut her with a knife to make it appear that Eldridge was killed when he interrupted a robbery, the court said.

Eldridge came home two hours later, and Luna stabbed him to death.

As they were about to leave the house, McDermott called out to them “not to forget to cut off Eldridge’s penis,” the court stated. “Luna did so.”

During the penalty phase of her trial, a physician from USC testified that McDermott was a compassionate, caring nurse. A deputy sheriff at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles described McDermott as cooperative and sensitive. She said McDermott had saved another inmate from choking.

But the prosecution said McDermott previously had hired Luna to beat up someone whose job she wanted.

McDermott said in her appeal that the only evidence linking her to the crime was uncorroborated testimony. But the state high court said the prosecution presented evidence of motive--money--and independent evidence that McDermott was in the house at the time of the crime.

“Although Eldridge was stabbed 44 times, defendant received only superficial wounds, casting doubt on the defense claim that she, like Eldridge, was a victim of residential robbery,” Kennard wrote in People vs. Maureen McDermott, S016081.

The court also cited as evidence 11 telephone calls between McDermott and Luna, who is serving a sentence of life in prison, on the day before and the day of the murder and six calls on the day after the killing.

California has executed four women, the last in 1962. Since 1992, the state has put to death 11 men.