Opinion ID: 2590211
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Murder of Rodger James DeVaul, Jr.

Text: As noted above, Bryce Wilson saw Rodger James DeVaul, Jr., together with Geoffrey Alan Nelson, outside Wilson's house in Cypress on the evening of February 11,1983. About 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, 1983, a motorist who was driving in the San Bernardino Mountains stopped at a turnout near Glendora Ridge and Mt. Baldy Road. There he saw a dead body lying off the road down a hillside. Deputy James Davis of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, responding to the scene, observed a body (later identified as that of Rodger James DeVaul, Jr.) about 14 or 15 feet from the side of the road. The victim's pants were unbuttoned and partially pulled down. Sergeant Clinton Dillon, who also responded to the scene, noted that the fine sand on the soles of DeVaul's shoes and his legs and around his penis did not match the sand in the area. DeVaul was wearing Geoffrey Alan Nelson's jacket. The cause of DeVaul's death was determined to be asphyxia due to neck compression. An abrasion on DeVaul's neck measured one and one-quarter inches in length and one-eighth inch in width. The left wrist bore a mark measuring one inch by one-quarter inch. Anal swabs taken from DeVaul at the autopsy revealed the presence of semen that could not be typed. DeVaul's blood-alcohol level was 0.07 percent, and his blood also contained propranolol and diazepam at therapeutic levels. The combination of alcohol and drugs would have impaired DeVaul's consciousness. Some of the photographs found underneath the floor mat of defendant's car at the time of his arrest, as well as some of the photographs developed from negatives taken from his house, depicted DeVaul. The photographs variously showed DeVaul's anal ligature on his wrist, and a pose in which DeVaul was holding his penis. Three photographs developed from the negatives sequenced after the DeVaul shots appeared to depict the area around the St. Ives Laboratory, where defendant was working the day after Nelson and DeVaul disappeared. At the time of his death, DeVaul was 20 years old and single, and had a girlfriend. He stood five feet nine or 10 inches tall and weighed between 160 and 170 pounds. The defense presented witnesses acquainted with DeVaul who testified he was a drug user. Various members of defendant's family testified that, on the afternoon of February 13, 1983, defendant had attended a birthday party for his father at defendant's sister's house. That morning, defendant had met his niece at a bakery to pick up a birthday cake before proceeding to the party. After leaving the party between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., defendant drove his niece back to the bakery, where she had left her car. A defense investigator testified that the distance between the places where DeVaul was last seen alive and where his body was found was 47.7 miles. Between the place where Nelson's body was found and the St. Ives Laboratory was a distance of 25 miles. The defense also presented evidence that soil samples taken from DeVaul's clothing and the crime scene did not share a common origin with those taken from defendant's car following the arrest. Head hairs taken from the groin area and shirt of DeVaul were different from the hairs of defendant, DeVaul or Nelson. Prosecution rebuttal evidence included testimony by John McWilliams, who had attended Claremont Men's College with defendant, that defendant was familiar with the mountain area around Mt. Baldy Road and Mt. Baldy Village. Defense surrebuttal evidence included testimony by Mark Gaukler, a friend of DeVaul's, that Gaukler had visited DeVaul sometime in the week before his death; while he waited for DeVaul to come home, several men who looked like rough characters had entered the house and gone to DeVaul's bedroom. That night, DeVaul telephoned Gaukler, saying he was in trouble and asking that Gaukler come over. DeVaul's trouble evidently was financial. The prosecution contended victims Nelson and DeVaul were represented on defendant's death list, found in the trunk of his car, by the entry 2 IN 1 BEACH. The whitish sand caked onto the blood around DeVaul's lips and nostrils was consistent, the prosecution argued, with beach sand. The prosecution theorized defendant met DeVaul and Nelson on the beach after leaving his bridge group.