4 Murder Counts Called Strong Despite 1 Quashed Confession

Accused serial killer Wayne Adam Ford of Arcata will stand trial for four gruesome slayings even though a San Bernardino County judge tossed out his confession for one of the slayings, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Judge Michael A. Smith ruled Monday that Ford’s confession is invalid because Ford effectively had invoked his right to an attorney on Nov. 5, 1998, when he asked for a lawyer while being interviewed by psychologist Paul Berg at the Kern County Sheriff’s Department.

Following the interview with Berg, Ford, without an attorney present, allegedly told detectives he had killed a Fontana woman, Tina Gibbs, and dumped her body in a Kern County aqueduct.

All four murder counts against Ford have been consolidated and will be tried in San Bernardino County. Ford has pleaded not guilty.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Whitney said he has a strong case against Ford for the Gibbs killing even without the confession. Ford was interviewed by deputies eight times before he spoke to Berg, Whitney said.

“In an interview with Humboldt County Det. Juan Freeman, Ford pointed out on a map where he had dumped Gibbs’ body in an aqueduct near Buttonwillow,” Whitney said. “It will look odd to a jury that we have confessions to three [murders] and not that one [Gibbs’], but not that odd.”

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is also trying to determine if DNA found on Gibbs’ body is linked to Ford, he said.

Whitney alleged that Ford strangled his victims and dumped their naked bodies in water. Gibbs was found strangled and in the aqueduct on July 2, 1998, a few days after she was killed, authorities said. In November 1998, Ford, a long-haul truck driver, walked into a Humboldt County sheriff’s station with a plastic baggie containing the breast of a Hesperia woman, Patricia Ann Tamez.

At the urging of his brother, who accompanied him, Ford allegedly confessed to the slayings of Tamez, whose body was found decapitated in Humboldt County in October 1997, and Lynette White, a Las Vegas woman whose body was found Sept. 5, 1998, in San Joaquin County.

Joe Canty, the public defender representing Ford, argued in court that all of the confessions should be suppressed because Ford requested an attorney soon after entering the Humboldt County station, and that he was continually questioned without a lawyer.

The judge disagreed, allowing the use of confessions that took place before Ford’s firm request to Berg for an attorney.

“The court finds the totality of all of the circumstances, including the defendant’s state of mind, clearly demonstrates ... defendant understood if he asserted his right to an attorney, the detective would terminate his contact with defendant,” he wrote.

Canty was unavailable for comment Tuesday. He is expected to contest Smith’s decision to the 4th District Court of Appeal.

Whitney praised Smith’s ruling, saying Ford, 42, remains eligible for the death penalty.