Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Killing of David Church

Text: Around Memorial Day, 1986, David Church and several of his friends attended a party at a ranch near Camarillo State Hospital. At 12:30 or 1 a.m., Church and three others (Fred Helmuth, Laurie Jansen, and Grace Medrano) left the ranch party and went to Brian Buckley's apartment. Buckley was having a party in honor of defendant's arrival. About six other people were in the apartment, including Pam Alex McCormick, Chris Caldwell, Grace's boyfriend, and defendant. Church and his friends discussed buying cocaine, and smoked some cocaine in a cigarette. After 30 minutes, Church, Jansen, and Helmuth left; Grace stayed overnight in the trailer with her boyfriend. Helmuth never heard from Church again. Church later returned to Buckley's apartment on his bicycle. He appeared to be drunk and repeatedly tried to enter, demanding drugs. Defendant and Caldwell took Church outside, telling Buckley to go back into his apartment. Buckley complied. After a while, defendant and Caldwell came back inside. Defendant told Buckley they had slashed Church's bicycle tires and had so scared him that he was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Defendant and Caldwell then left again, Caldwell taking the keys to Church's mother's car and an ax handle, defendant taking some cocaine. Buckley never saw Church again. Several hours later, around daybreak, defendant and Caldwell returned to Buckley's apartment. Pam McCormick, who had been sleeping in Buckley's bedroom after using a lot of cocaine, overheard a conversation among defendant, Caldwell, and Buckley. They talked about having to get rid of a body. They said something about ammonia and about throwing it in the ocean. They also talked about finding cocaine on his body and having to get rid of his bicycle. Buckley testified that he saw defendant and Caldwell in the morning, four or five hours after they had left. He also saw a 10-speed bicycle with its tires slashed and its wheels removed. Defendant stated they had to get rid of the bicycle because the tires had been cut with his knife, and the police could trace the knife. Later, Caldwell or defendant said he had put the bicycle in a dumpster. Two or three days later, defendant told Buckley they had had to kill Church because he would have gone to the police if he did not get cocaine. Buckley told defendant Caldwell had already told him about the killing. Four or five days after the party, defendant and Caldwell spoke to Buckley, describing how hard Church was to kill. Still later, defendant said he had to throw away the ax handle because there was blood on the end of it. Defendant also talked about a killing in New Mexico, saying he had killed the husband of a girl named Kim because Kim was afraid of her husband, who had been a friend of defendant's. Defendant wanted Buckley to go back to New Mexico with him to dig up the body of the husband and rebury it so the animals would not get to it. Defendant told Buckley he could kill someone and have no conscience about it. Eddie Denton Church, David Church's father, testified that David owned a blue 10-speed bicycle, a KHS Winner model, with thin tires and straight handlebars. He had purchased the bicycle for David from California International Cycles. The senior Church never saw his son after the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in 1986. On July 29, 1986, Daniel Berg was walking in a creekbed along Aliso Canyon Road. A strong odor drew his attention to a large pile of rocks. Berg uncovered a shoe, a pants leg, and the shoulder of a sweater, and called the sheriff's department. Sheriff's Sergeant Gary Backman investigated. The grave was a mound of rocks above a dry creek bottom off a dirt road in the canyon. Papers scattered near the grave included a Ventura County Medical Center identification card. Dr. Frederick Warren Lovell inspected the grave site and subsequently performed an autopsy. The body was markedly decomposed, with the skin mummified and most of the face, muscle mass, and internal organs gone. In Dr. Lovell's opinion, the body had been in the canyon more than six weeks and less than ten months. He was unable to determine the cause of death. Dr. Lovell testified that a blunt-force blow to the skull sufficient to cause unconsciousness would not necessarily leave a recognizable mark or damage to the skull. Dr. Lovell compared X-rays of the skull with an X-ray from the Ventura County Medical Center Hospital files for David Church. Distinctive patterns in both X-rays established that the body found in the canyon was that of David Church. On August 7, 1986, Sergeant Backman recovered a blue 10-speed KHS Winner bicycle which had been found leaning against a fence near the intersection of Church and Ann Streets in Ventura County. The serial number of the bicycle matched that listed on the sales slip from International Cycles.