Four Killed by Trucker, Jury Is Told

On the opening day of accused serial killer Wayne Adam Ford’s trial Monday, a San Bernardino County prosecutor told jurors that the long-haul trucker strangled four women across the state for personal satisfaction and sexual pleasure.

Ford, 44, walked into a Humboldt County sheriff’s station in November 1998 with a woman’s severed breast in a plastic bag in his pocket, saying it was “just the tip of the iceberg,” San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. J. David Mazurek said in court.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty on four counts of first-degree murder; the defense is aiming for lesser charges of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Between 1997 and 1998, Ford allegedly picked up the women -- prostitutes or hitchhikers -- and bound, strangled, raped and at times beat them before dumping their bodies in waterways, Mazurek said.

The victims were found in Humboldt, Kern, San Joaquin and San Bernardino counties.

Ford turned himself in as an act of remorse and to prevent further killings, Deputy Public Defender Joseph D. Canty told jurors in his opening statement.

Ford “recognized something was wrong with him,” Canty said. “He recognized the killings had to stop.”

Although Ford could recount details of the victims’ clothing and appearance, and where he met them and disposed of them, he was evasive about the details of the slayings, both attorneys said.

Mazurek described Ford dismembering the Humboldt County victim in a trailer bathtub with a survival knife, scattering her body parts in a nearby river and a campsite.

Prosecutors’ hourlong presentation included photos of the victims’ remains, including a torso so mutilated it was never identified.

Both the prosecution and defense painted Ford, a retired U.S. Marine, as a father distraught over the separation from his toddler son, Max, after divorcing his second wife in 1998.

“All the [victims] start talking about babies,” the prosecutor told the jury. “Talking about babies makes him mad. Sometimes when he’s angry he just wanted these girls to shut up.”

“He knew what he was doing,” Mazurek said. “He killed them deliberately because he liked to do it.”

Canty told jurors that a psychologist offering testimony on Ford’s depressed and unstable mental state would offer an explanation for Ford’s actions, although his client will not plead insanity.

“Wayne Ford knows right from wrong,” Canty said. “That’s why he is before you on trial today.”

When Humboldt County detectives once asked him how he felt, Ford responded, “I would feel better if you shoot me,” Canty told the jury.

He also said his client suffered psychologically following a car accident in the mid-1980s. Ford was allegedly hit by a car while helping a motorist on the Santa Ana Freeway in Irvine.

Ford, wearing an olive jacket and black pants, stared straight ahead, expressionless, for much of the prosecution’s remarks. Thin, with a trimmed mustache and dark hair, Ford appeared distraught, grimacing and bringing his hand to his mouth, during Canty’s description of interactions with his young son.

The victims include Tina Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas; Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana; and Patricia Anne Tamez, 29, of Hesperia. One victim remains unidentified.

The cases have been consolidated, and the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office is prosecuting Ford for all the slayings. He is being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

There are 12 jurors and six alternates -- 11 women and seven men.

Humboldt County officials are expected to take the witness stand this week, prosecutors said. The trial is expected to take several months.