Opinion ID: 2359622
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Circumstances Surrounding the Murders

Text: On the morning of April 9, 1978, Lance Wyatt, a film student, went into the Mojave Desert to shoot a film for his cinema class with his wife, Marti Soto, and two friends, Ingrid Etayo and James Henderson. [2] They arrived at their location about noon, unloaded their equipment, and began filming. At some point, defendant and his brother-in-law, Greg Laufenberger, stumbled onto the movie set. The two men carried rifles and a six-pack of beer. Defendant told Wyatt that his car had broken down and asked for a ride into town. Wyatt said he would give the men a ride after he finished filming. The two men left. Later as Soto and Etayo drove into town to get lunch, they saw defendant and Laufenberger. The two men flagged the women down and asked them for a ride; the women declined and kept driving. Defendant and Laufenberger then returned to where Wyatt was filming. Wyatt found their presence unsettling and went to speak to them. Defendant smelled strongly of alcohol and was using profanity. At defendant's invitation, Wyatt took a sip of defendant's beer and fired his rifle. Wyatt then returned to his work. He prepared for the next scene, which required the use of a .38-caliber revolver loaded with blanks. Defendant watched as Henderson fired the revolver several times during the scene. A short while later, defendant and Laufenberger again approached Wyatt and asked for a ride into town. He repeated his offer to drive them after he finished filming. The two men decided to try their luck hitchhiking and left. Soto and Etayo returned with food. The four ate and then resumed filming. When they began to lose the light they stopped for the day. As Wyatt, Henderson and Soto were walking back to Wyatt's car with equipment, shots rang out and Henderson called, I've been shot. Wyatt dropped the equipment he was carrying and went to Henderson's assistance; the two of them and Etayo managed to make it around to the passenger's side of the car before more shots were fired. A second volley hit Soto in the head as she was scrambling for cover. Wyatt and Henderson got her around to the side of the car. There was a pause in the shooting, and Henderson and Wyatt searched unsuccessfully for the car keys. When the shooting started up again, Henderson sprinted from behind the car in an effort to find help. A volley of bullets struck and killed him. As Henderson fell to the ground, Wyatt looked beneath the car and saw defendant raise his head up from behind a bush and fire at Wyatt. One of the shots hit Wyatt in the hand. Wyatt and Etayo decided their best chance for survival was to run from defendant. Wyatt ran about 150 feet before he tripped and fell. He looked back and saw defendant approaching Etayo. He ran another 150 feet and stopped again. He saw defendant standing over Etayo who was kneeling beside Soto. Wyatt ran. He heard several more shotsthese shots killed Etayo. Wyatt reached the highway and flagged down a ride. On the drive into town, he saw defendant and Laufenberger hitchhiking. Wyatt later attempted to lead police back to the scene but was unfamiliar with the area. Eventually, police came upon defendant's car. Wyatt was taken by paramedics to the hospital, while police continued their search for Wyatt's car. They found the car and the bodies of Henderson and Etayo. Soto was also discovered, wounded but still alive. She was taken to the hospital, where she died. An autopsy revealed that she was killed by a single gunshot to the head. Henderson had sustained six gunshot wounds, three of them fatal. Etayo sustained 10 or 11 gunshot wounds, three of them fatal. The bullets removed from the victims' bodies were consistent with a semiautomatic rifle found near defendant's abandoned car.