Bid for New Venue in ’96 Death Loses

A Texas businessman accused of murder after a woman co-worker plunged in 1996 from an Industry Hills hotel balcony has lost his bid to move his trial out of the San Gabriel Valley, authorities said Tuesday.

Attorneys for Robert Lee Salazar argued that he could not get a fair trial in the area because of heavy media coverage of the case, including television dramatizations of Sandra Orellana’s death.

Pomona Superior Court Judge Theodore Piatt said that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Salazar wouldn’t get a fair trial, said Jane Robison of the district attorney’s office.

Salazar, who has pleaded innocent, told authorities that Orellana, 27, accidentally fell eight stories at the Sheraton on Nov. 13, 1996, while they were having sex.

Salazar, 37, was arrested a week after her death, but was released for lack of evidence.

Prosecutors said last year that later DNA testing revealed Orellana’s blood on one of his T-shirts and on a sheet in her room next door to Salazar’s.

Salazar, who was arrested again March 2, 2001, in Texas, did not fight extradition. He was freed after posting bond but must return to California for court appearances.