Opinion ID: 1309837
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Herman Silber Murder

Text: On October 8, 1980, 69-year-old Herman Silber was shot to death in the parking lot of the Cerritos Mall. Andrea Nelson, an employee at the Cerritos Mall, was conversing with a fellow employee when she observed defendant and Silber together in the parking lot. While driving out of the lot, Nelson felt a large shock; she described it as a backfire. When she glanced in the car's rearview mirror, she saw Silber slumping down between the cars and falling to the ground, and noticed defendant rummaging through Silber's pockets. Nelson then backed her car until she could see Silber on the ground and defendant, who was kneeling, looking up at her. Nelson identified defendant to Walter Kerr, who was walking outside the mall with his wife. Defendant left the area on foot and both Nelson and Kerr attempted to follow him, [3] but they eventually returned to the scene and provided the police with a description. A short time later, a deputy sheriff detained defendant on a street near the Cerritos Mall and found a small.22-caliber sterling automatic handgun in his possession. Nelson and Kerr identified defendant to police officers at the scene of his arrest. They were positive that defendant was the same man they had observed at the scene of the murder. Defendant was then arrested. Deputy Sheriff Christensen, a firearms identification examiner, studied the expended bullets and cartridge cases from both the Temple and Silber murders. Christensen concluded that the bullet obtained from Temple's body and the shell casing found near Silber's body were both from defendant's gun. The expended bullet removed from Silber's body, however, was too distorted to allow a positive identification comparison.