Opinion ID: 2590211
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Defense Evidence Relating to the Charges Generally

Text: Defendant's neighbors on Roswell Avenue, Pennie De Wees and Willy Sadler, did not see anything out of the ordinary with respect to visitors at defendant's house. De Wees considered defendant a wonderful neighbor. Thomas Schardt, a commercial photographer specializing in forensic reconstruction, photographed a Mustang manufactured in the same year (1974) as defendant's and testified it would be extremely difficult to push open a passenger door from the driver's side because one would have to pull up on the lever and push out on the door at the same time. The prosecution, however, contended the Mustang Schardt examined was significantly different from defendant's Mustang.

The prosecution presented evidence that defendant had committed an uncharged sexual assault and eight additional murders in Oregon and Michigan. In 1970, defendant befriended 13-year-old Joseph F., who had just run away from home, took him to defendant's house, drugged him and sodomized him. From 1980 to 1982, while on business trips to Oregon, defendant murdered six young men in separate incidents. One night in December 1982, while on a business-related trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, defendant murdered two young men. Items belonging to the Oregon and Michigan victims were found in the search of defendant's house. A jacket taken from one of the Oregon victims was found just outside defendant's Grand Rapids hotel room. References to all eight out-of-state victims, the prosecutor argued, were included on the list found in defendant's car after his arrest.
In March 1970, 13-year-old Joseph F. ran away from his Westminster home on his bicycle. He rode his bicycle up and down the boardwalk in Huntington Beach, where he encountered defendant. He asked defendant for a cigarette, which defendant gave him. After learning Joseph was a runaway, defendant offered to let him stay at his apartment. Joseph hid his bicycle and accompanied defendant on his motorcycle to defendant's apartment in Long Beach. There, defendant gave Joseph some red capsules. Joseph swallowed four capsules initially and four more a short time later, washing them down with wine. Joseph felt drowsy and started to black out. Defendant asked Joseph if he had ever had sex with a man before and showed him photographs of men having sex with one another. Defendant was depicted in some of the photographs. Defendant began masturbating in front of Joseph and asked him to take off his clothes. Joseph was unable to resist because of the pills and alcohol he had ingested. Defendant forced Joseph to orally copulate him, slapped him and sodomized him twice, causing him pain. Afterward, defendant said something about going to work and left the apartment. Joseph then left the apartment and went to a bar across the street, narrowly missing getting hit by a car. Someone called an ambulance, and Joseph was taken to a hospital, where his stomach was pumped. His face was bruised and his rectum was sore. Joseph never revealed to anyone that defendant had sexually assaulted him until he was interviewed by detectives in August 1983. At the time of trial, Joseph was in custody on a parole violation. Joseph acknowledged that after telling detectives about the incident he asked for money, a vehicle and a loan, but testified he did not receive anything from any law enforcement agency. In defense, Joseph's mother acknowledged she had told personnel at her son's school and others that Joseph was a pathological liar.
In July 1980, Michael O'Fallon left his home in Golden, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, and hitchhiked to Canada. O'Fallon, then 17 years old, stood five feet seven inches tall and weighed 135 pounds. When he left on his trip, O'Fallon took a camera with his mother's initials, MJO, scratched on the front. About 12:10 a.m. on July 17, 1980, a passing motorist encountered O'Fallon hitchhiking on Interstate 5 in Oregon. About 5:00 a.m. that day, O'Fallon's body was found at the Talbot Road interchange with Interstate 5, some 10 miles south of Salem, Oregon. There were no clothes or identification with the body. The cause of death was ligature strangulation. A ligature consisting of a red shoelace bound O'Fallon's wrists together, while his ankles were bound by another lace. A white ligature connected the other two ligatures with O'Fallon's scrotum. Blood and fecal material were visible from a laceration to the anus. O'Fallon's blood contained alcohol (0.04 percent) and diazepam. On a number of occasions defendant's employer, Lear Siegler Corporation (Lear-Siegler), sent him to its Peerless Division in Tualitin, Oregon, to help install a computer system. Defendant worked at that location between July 16 and July 18, 1980, and rented a car for that period at the Portland airport. Defendant returned the rental car to the airport. Although the Peerless building was only 25 miles from the airport, defendant drove his rental car a distance of 993 miles between July 16 and July 18. A camera bearing the initials MJO and identified by O'Fallon's mother and brother as the camera Michael O'Fallon took with him on his trip was found in the search of defendant's garage. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND DENVER on defendant's list referred to O'Fallon.
About 4:20 a.m. on July 18, 1980 (the day after O'Fallon's body was found), the body of another deceased White male was discovered on the side of Interstate 5 about a mile south of Woodburn, Oregon. The victim, whose age was estimated at 35 to 40 years, was never identified. The victim's belt and bootlaces were missing. The cause of death was ligature strangulation. A ligature mark about one-half-inch wide was around the victim's neck. The victim's blood contained alcohol (0.06 percent) and diazepam. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND ELK [4] on defendant's list referred to John Doe Oregon; he reached this conclusion by process of elimination as all the other PORTLAND entries appeared to represent the other Oregon victims.
On April 9, 1981, Michael Duane Cluck, then 17 years old and living in Kent, Washington, told his mother he was going to hitchhike to Bakersfield or Southern California to get a job. Cluck stood five feet eight inches tall and weighed 160 pounds. Cluck took with him a shaving kit his grandmother had given him. Cluck's name was on the kit. About 8:39 a.m. the next day, Cluck's body was found in a ditch on the side of Pebbles Road about 500 feet from Interstate 5 in Oregon. The body was nude from the waist down. There was considerable blood in the facial area and blood smears on other exposed portions of the body. When found, the body was still warm to the touch. Death had resulted from 16 wounds to the back of the head, which had caved in the victim's skull. There was a laceration and blood loss in the area of the rectum. The victim's blood contained alcohol (0.09 percent), bromodiphenylhydramine, chlorpheniramine and codeine. His urine contained norephedrine, codeine metabolites, flurazepam metabolites and chlorpheniramine. On the day Cluck's body was found, defendant sought medical attention in Tualitin, Oregon. He reported to the physician that he had badly bruised his toe about 3:00 a.m. that morning while moving about barefoot in his motel room to turn on the television to watch the launching of the space shuttle. Cluck's shaving kit was found underneath some clothes in a drawer in the hallway of defendant's house. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND BLOOD on defendant's list, alluding to the large quantity of blood at the murder scene, referred to Michael Cluck.
In the early morning hours of November 24, 1982, a dead body later identified as that of Brian Whitcher was found south of Wilsonville, Oregon, on the fog line of Cambry-Hubbard Road, which runs parallel to Interstate 5. There was no belt in the victim's pants, and the victim's feet were bare. The body had been thrown from a moving vehicle. The cause of death was asphyxiation, and there was a ligature mark on the victim's neck about two and one-half inches long and one-half inch wide. Whitcher's blood contained alcohol (0.31 percent) and diazepam. Defendant was working at Peerless in Tualitin, Oregon, on November 23 and 24, 1982. He drove a rental car 232 miles during that period. A friend of Whitcher's, Earl Davis, last saw Whitcher around noon on November 23, 1982, at which time Whitcher was wearing a distinctive brown velour pullover Davis had purchased and later given to Whitcher. That pullover was later found in the garage of defendant's home. According to Davis, Whitcher occasionally smoked marijuana. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND HEAD on defendant's list referred to Brian Whitcher, in an apparent allusion to Whitcher's fondness for marijuana.
In December 1982, Anthony Silveira, then 29 years old and a member of the National Guard Reserve, lived in Eagle Point, Oregon, with his wife. He owned an army jacket with his name tag sewn on it. On December 4, 1982, Silveira was supposed to travel from Cannon Beach, in the northwest part of Oregon, to Medford for guard duty. He did not own a car. Silveira had telephoned his wife on December 3, 1982; she never heard from him again. Defendant was working for Lear-Siegler near Portland between December 1 and December 4, 1982. On December 18, 1982, Silveira's dead body was found off Boone's Ferry Road near Interstate 5 west of Hubbard, Oregon. There was no clothing on the body, which appeared to have been there for a period of time as there were signs of putrefaction and nibbling by animals. Death was caused by ligature strangulation, with a ligature mark, consistent with a belt, visible at the autopsy. A toothbrush was removed from the victim's anus at the autopsy; the rectum was dilated and spermatozoa and blood were found in the anal canal. The victim's blood contained alcohol (0.23 percent) and diazepam. On December 4, 1982, defendant visited his friend Gary Newell at the latter's home in Seattle, Washington. Defendant arrived in a rental car and, soon thereafter, returned to the car and retrieved an army jacket that was either Silveira's or very similar to it. Both Newell and his housemate, Leonard Brouette, recalled that the name on the jacket began with S and was a Hispanic-sounding name. The next morning, defendant said he was leaving for the airport and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Defendant stayed in room 1169 on the 11th floor of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids from December 5 through December 8, 1982. About 10:00 a.m. on December 8, hotel security officer Ronald Ortega found Silveira's army jacket draped over a couch located in the 11th floor elevator lobby area, about 12 to 15 feet from defendant's room. Ortega turned the jacket in to the hotel's lost-and-found department. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND RESERVE on defendant's list referred to Silveira. In defense, pathologist Robert Bucklin reviewed photographs and autopsy reports concerning the Silveira case and concluded Silveira had been dead no more than three days when his body was found, although he acknowledged he had not considered the fact Silveira had failed to report for reserve duty on December 5 as scheduled. Banking and business records showed defendant was in Southern California from December 10 through December 18, 1982. Analysis of the semen found on the toothbrush in the victim's anus established it was equally likely the semen donor was a type B secretor, a type O secretor, or a type O nonsecretor. Defendant was a type O nonsecretor, and the victim was a type B secretor. In rebuttal, pathologist Robert Richards testified, based on the temperatures in the low 30's and 40's at the scene where the body was discovered, Silveira's body could have been there for two or three weeks before it was found, despite the relative lack of deterioration of the body.
In December 1982, Dennis Alt, then 24 years old, lived on a farm in Kent County, Michigan, about seven miles from Grand Rapids. He stood five feet 10 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds. Christopher Schoenborn, then 20 years old, also lived on a farm near Grand Rapids, and knew and was related to Alt. Schoenborn stood six feet two inches tall and weighed 190 pounds. On December 7, 1982, Alt and Schoenborn attended an agricultural convention at the convention hall near the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Schoenborn was wearing a Mighty Mac jacket with his name inscribed on a label. Defendant was in Grand Rapids from December 5 through December 8 to attend a seminar for his employer. The seminar concluded on the afternoon of December 7, after which defendant had a business dinner with fellow employee Ronald Titgen and two others. Following the dinner, defendant and Titgen went to Tootsie Van Kelly's bar in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, where they spoke with Christopher Schoenborn, a local resident whom they happened to meet, for about an hour. Titgen and defendant spoke with Schoenborn until sometime between 11:00 p.m. and midnight, when Schoenborn left and defendant said he had to make a couple of telephone calls. Titgen then went to his hotel room. Dennis Alt was also in Tootsie Van Kelly's that evening. Dennis's cousin, Thomas Alt, saw Dennis in the bar around 11:00 p.m. Dennis had been drinking and asked Thomas to take him home. Thomas agreed but, after going back into the bar to retrieve his jacket and then paying for a round of drinks for some people he knew, Thomas could not find Dennis. On the morning of December 9, 1982, the bodies of two men, later identified as those of Christopher Schoenborn and Dennis Alt, were found five feet from a road in a vacant field about four miles from the Alt farm and nine miles from the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. Alt's pants were unbuttoned and his genitals were exposed. He was wearing socks but no shoes. His death was the result of asphyxiation by choking; there were linear pressure marks on the right side of his neck. Alt's blood contained alcohol (0.15 percent) and diazepam. Like Alt, Schoenborn had been choked to death, and there were parallel pressure marks on the left side of his neck. A pen with the insignia of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel had been inserted up Schoenborn's urethra into the soft tissue of the pelvis, causing extensive hemorrhaging. Schoenborn's blood contained alcohol (0.16 percent), and there was diazepam in his stomach. After defendant checked out of room 1169 of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, a housekeeping supervisor found a set of keys, which she turned in to the hotel's lost-and-found department. The keys were for Alt's Ford Bronco and Yamaha snowmobile. Schoenborn's Mighty Mac jacket, identified at trial by his mother, was found in a search of defendant's garage. Schoenborn's key chain and bottle opener were found in the pocket of a sports coat in defendant's home. Schoenborn's boots and belt were also recovered from defendant's home. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry GR 2 on defendant's list referred to Alt and Schoenborn.
About 10:45 p.m. on December 8, 1982, Lance Taggs, 19 years old, five feet seven inches in height and 160 pounds in weight, left his home in Tigard, Oregon. Taggs had no car and sometimes hitchhiked. Taggs carried a blue nylon tote bag, printed with Kaneohe, Hawaii, into which he had packed his surfing clothes and his distinctive set of nunchakus. Having previously lived in Hawaii, Taggs possessed some clothes with Hawaii printed on them and a Hawaii state identification card. A body, later identified as Taggs, was found the next day several feet off a road a half-mile east of Interstate 5 between Wilsonville and Canby in Oregon, less than a quarter mile-from the location where Brian Whitcher's body had been found (see ante, 99 Cal.Rptr.2d at p. 31, 5 P.3d at 95). The words Local Motion and Hawaii were printed on the red shirt Taggs was wearing. There were no shoes or socks on the body, which had been ejected from a moving vehicle. The cause of death was asphyxiation from the obstruction of the airway by a foreign object (an orange sock had been stuffed down Taggs's throat). The waistband of the swimming trunks Taggs was wearing was unsnapped, and it appeared he had been redressed, as the inside of the swimming trunks was dirty. Taggs's blood contained alcohol (0.07 percent), diazepam and nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam). Defendant claimed reimbursement from his employer, Lear-Siegler, for expenses incurred in Portland, Oregon, on December 8 and 9, 1982. Taggs's tote bag and nunchakus were found in the search of defendant's house. The prosecutor argued to the jury that the entry PORTLAND HAWAII on defendant's list referred to Taggs. The defense tried to show that another person was responsible for Taggs's murder. Robert Hayes, the former proprietor of a security business in Wilsonville, Oregon, testified that in the early evening hours of December 8, 1982, he had encountered Taggs hitchhiking by the freeway near Wilsonville. Hayes told Taggs to get out of the area, as a couple of murders had occurred there. Some disreputable persons, including one Lloyd Hawes, frequented a rest stop south of Wilsonville. That same evening, Hayes saw Hawes and three other men near where Taggs had been hitchhiking. The next day, Hayes learned Taggs's body had been found between one and two miles from where Hayes had seen Hawes's truck. Thereafter, Hayes quietly approached Hawes's pickup truck through some woods. As he did so, he heard Hawes state: That one sure bounced a long way last night, didn't he? Later, Hayes, accompanied by a deputy sheriff, secretly searched under Hawes's camper shell, finding some clean Hawaiian shirts and a clean pair of blue jeans that would not have fit anyone in Hawes's group. These were unlikely items to find in Hawes's camper, as Hawes was a cruddy, greasy, dirty-looking person one could smell ... a block away.