Opinion ID: 1239150
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Defendant's second arrest

Text: On August 16, defendant was re-arrested and transported to Parker Center in downtown Los Angeles. At approximately 6:45 p.m., Detectives St. John and Melleker attempted to interview defendant. The interrogation room was equipped with a hidden tape recorder, and Detective St. John also carried a briefcase that contained another tape recorder. Defendant was advised of his rights pursuant to Miranda, [6] and defendant informed the detectives that he wished to have his attorney present. The detectives escorted him to a telephone, and he attempted to contact his lawyer. The detectives switched off the recording devices. Defendant was unable to contact the attorney and was returned to the interrogation room. Meanwhile, Detective Worthen, who had just returned to the police station, was informed that defendant did not wish to waive his right to an attorney. Five to ten minutes later, Detective Worthen informed Detective St. John that defendant now was willing to answer questions without the presence of his attorney. At approximately 7:30 p.m., Detectives St. John and Melleker, reactivating the recording devices, reentered the interrogation room and inquired whether defendant now wished to speak to them. Defendant, responding affirmatively, was re-advised of and waived his rights pursuant to Miranda. Defendant told the officers that he had known Shari Miller approximately two years. Asked when he last had seen Shari and whether he ever had taken her photograph, defendant gave the following account. In June, defendant had agreed to photograph Shari. She missed their scheduled meeting and had telephoned him from her mother's residence in San Pedro to apologize for canceling. Approximately one week later, during the last part of June, possibly on June 28, defendant had taken one and one-half rolls of film of Shari in Topanga Canyon, and later that evening they had gone to see the film, THE SURVIVORS, at a drive-in theater. Defendant then dropped Shari off at the Meat Market bar. The following day, Shari had appeared at defendant's apartment while defendant and Evans Haas were working on defendant's motorcycle. Defendant and Haas drove to Bartels Harley-Davidson in Culver City. They returned to discover Shari asleep in defendant's automobile, and he recorded the scene with his Polaroid camera. Shari departed to collect her payment for house painting work she had performed in the San Fernando Valley, arranging to meet defendant that evening at the Meat Market bar to obtain the photographs that defendant had taken. Shari did not appear at that time, and defendant never saw her again, except several weeks later to wave to her as she drove by in her vehicle. Defendant told the detectives that he had photographed Shari only in Topanga Canyon, inside the Meat Market bar, and inside his vehicle in the garage of his apartment. Defendant told the detectives that the photographs of Shari standing in front of the desert rock formations were taken in Topanga Canyon. Confronted with the fact that the photographs had been taken in the Lancaster desert area, defendant replied that the photographs were taken up in the Chatsworth area near Castle Rock. When asked about Tracey, defendant explained that he had met Tracey's family while he was cleaning his motorcycle in front of his apartment building, and had met Tracey the day he took photographs of Todd at the construction site. Defendant saw Tracey again one morning when he visited her family's apartment. That afternoon, she visited defendant's apartment to use the telephone, and later he dropped her off at a coffee shop on Venice Boulevard. The detectives informed defendant that Tracey's body had been discovered approximately 150 yards from the same desert location as that depicted in defendant's photographs of Shari. Defendant stated that he was unfamiliar with that location. When the police told defendant that they could place defendant and Shari in the same desert location where Tracey's body had been discovered, defendant responded, I can't explain it to you. Asked if he had killed Shari or Tracey, defendant replied, No sir. He asked to try the attorney again, and the interview concluded. The same day, August 16, LAPD officers and Lancaster sheriff's deputies obtained a second search warrant for defendant's apartment. In the hall closet, they discovered a wristwatch with a dark band flecked with yellow paint, similar to the watch Shari wore in the photographs taken in the desert. The police found approximately 50 documents in defendant's name, as well as a pair of beach thongs similar to thongs found in Shari's automobile. In the bedroom of Olga Talbot's son, Gary Williams, the police found, inside a box, a section of white rope that Williams denied owning. The police recovered a number of photographs from the hall closet and the storage area located in the apartment garage. From the same storage locker, the police recovered a leather shoelace-type thong and a double-bladed knife. On August 17, pursuant to a search warrant, defendant's vehicle was searched. Luminol and phenolphthalein tests indicated the possible presence of blood on the floor mat in the trunk. Because these tests also may produce positive results if the chemicals utilized have contact with other substances, such as meat or vegetables, a human precipitant test was conducted. The result was not positive, indicating either that no human blood was present or that the sample used was too minute to produce a reaction. The white rope recovered from the box in a bedroom at defendant's apartment proved to make an impression identical to the ligature impressions discovered on Tracey's body. During trial, the jury was transported to view the bowl site. The jury was shown that the location where Tracey's body was discovered was approximately 400 feet from the location of Shari in one of defendant's photographs, identifiable because of the distinctive rock formations in the background. The defense rested without presenting any evidence. After hearing the evidence described above, the jury found defendant guilty of two counts of first degree murder. The jury also found true the special circumstance that defendant had committed multiple murder.