Opinion ID: 2590211
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Murder of John Doe Huntington Beach

Text: About 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 14, 1973, a passing motorist saw a dead body on Ellis Avenue between Goldenwest and Gothard Streets in Huntington Beach and called the police. There was no identification with the body, which remained unidentified at the time of trial. The victim appeared to be between 18 and 25 years old. He wore socks but no shoes, and there was no belt in his pants. The cause of death was suffocation, perhaps caused by a gag or something put over the nose and mouth. The victim's penis and scrotum had been removed antemortem, and the loss of at least two pints of blood may have been a contributing factor in the death. There were gag marks on the mouth and ligature marks on both wrists. The victim's nose and lips had been bruised before death. There were postmortem road burns on the body. A sharp instrument had inflicted cuts on various parts of the body after death. The victim's blood-alcohol level was 0.07 percent. Rectal swabs taken from the victim at the autopsy were found to contain spermatozoa. William Smith, a resident of the City of Huntington Beach since 1946, worked for the city on traffic signals at the time of trial. Smith testified that, when he was in elementary school, the area where the body of John Doe Huntington Beach was found was known as Airplane Hill. Children would try to ride their bicycles down one side and up the other without stopping, and high school students would try to drive their cars down the hill fast enough to get a feeling of becoming airborne. The bottom of the hill was filled in in 1960. The prosecutor argued to the jury that AIRPLANE HILL on defendant's list referred to John Doe Huntington Beach. The defense presented evidence that latent fingerprints on beer cans along the side of the road near where the victim's body was found did not match defendant's. A witness, who had grown up in Long Beach, knew the area where the victim's body was found as Shell Hill rather than Airplane Hill. Another witness testified that a different location, between the Pacific Coast Highway and Colorado Boulevard on Manila Avenue, was known as Airplane Hill. Benjamin Paniagua, a friend of defendant's, testified defendant used to visit him in his apartment in Long Beach and that a nearby area on Manila Avenue was called Airplane Hill. Paniagua acknowledged, however, that defendant never referred to him as Airplane Hill. A defense investigator unsuccessfully looked for associates of defendant who were aware that defendant knew the area where the victim's body was found as Airplane Hill.