Judge’s ‘punch in the gut’ decision in Linda Cummings case – Orange County Register

Stanley.1118.jah. shot dead 111705 Jebb Harris The Orange County Register Henderson Nevada SWAT officers along with Orange County District Attorney investigators and Santa Ana Police detectives arrested David L. Stanley at his home in Henderson on murder charges Thursday. Stanley, known as Louis Wiechecki at the time of the 1974 crime, is wanted for the murder of Linda Louise Cummings in Santa Ana 31 years ago.

Orange County Superior Court

Department C-35

October 9, 2009

Louis Wiechecki, dressed in a suit and tie, sat at the defense table in the eighth-floor courtroom of Judge Frank Fasel’s building, awaiting the most important court decision of his life.

I sat in the gallery as a spectator without a pen or notepad. My editors grounded me after defense attorney John Barnett argued in his motion to dismiss that “this prosecution was not driven by the evidence, but by Larry Welborn’s control.”

My colleague Rachanee Srisavasdi was on assignment as a reporter. My own emotional stake in the outcome only added to the drama that has marked every verdict in every case in every courtroom I have ever covered.

Judge Fasel began by summarizing the facts and listing the evidence on which he would rely.

He noted Wiechecki’s role in discovering the body and using the manager’s key to enter Linda Cummings’ apartment. He detailed the suspicious circumstances that investigators encountered, including the unusual way the rope was positioned and tied around Linda’s neck. He described how Wiechecki was the primary source who informed police that Linda was schizophrenic, paranoid, and suicidal.

He recounted how coroner’s investigator Joe Stevens hesitated to rule Linda a suicide—until he made a single phone call to Dr. Vincent Mark, who convinced him she had previously attempted suicide. And once the death was ruled a suicide, he noted, the involvement of Santa Ana Police Department homicide detective Bill Bruns ended.

Fasel also cited significant omissions in the deputy coroner’s investigation. Stevens did not personally visit Dr. Mark. He did not request written confirmation in the medical records of any treatment for depression or other emotional problems, nor did he know whether prescription drugs had been found in Linda’s apartment.

The judge outlined the prosecution’s theory that Linda Cummings was raped and strangled by the defendant after he administered a sedative called Thorazine to her, which was found in her system during an autopsy, and that Wiechecki lied to police by claiming that Linda had just been released from a psychiatric hospital.

He conceded that Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin could have introduced evidence that Linda was happy and not suicidal, that she was not under the care of a physician, that she was not prescribed Thorazine, that she would not have been physically able to attach the ropes with which she hanged herself, and that she was already dead when the ropes were applied to her.

The prosecution barely contested Wiechecki’s claim that the three-decade delay cost the defense some evidence. Yellin and Assistant District Attorney Jim Mulgrew argued instead that the delay was justified because some evidence available now was not available then.

The judge then pointed out some of the most obvious ways that time had hurt Louie’s case. Dr. Robert Richards, the “Dr. Quincy of Orange County,” had died within the last three decades. The memories of medical examiner Paul Colligan, who performed the original autopsy; Linda’s friend, nurse Harriet Neves; and Louie’s first wife, Sandy Wiechecki, had been clouded by the passage of time. Authorities had lost or destroyed key evidence, including a rape kit, some of Linda’s organs, a rope, and crime-scene photos.

All this, Fasel said, was unfair to Wiechecki.

The judge was particularly concerned about the coroner’s investigator’s memory. Stevens admitted in his testimony to the jury that he had had memory problems since 2006, when he suffered a heart attack.

Because Stevens was no longer credible as a witness regarding the cause of death and Linda’s mental state, Fasel specifically stated, “The Court finds that the loss of Joseph Stevens as a witness is highly prejudicial to the defense.”

Fasel addressed Mulgrew’s argument that the 31-year delay between the crime and the arrest was justified by the circumstances, including technical and investigative advances in forensic pathology. For example, Dr. Dean Hawley’s expertise in death by strangulation concluded that Linda was dead when the noose was placed around her neck.

Fasel, however, disputed the government’s argument that new techniques were needed for Hawley to link the rope marks to a hanging execution.

“The court finds that the prosecution has failed to establish either of the following facts…that the standards of forensic science at the time of Ms. Cummings’ death precluded the initiation of a criminal prosecution (in 1974) or…that subsequent advances in the field made it possible to do so in 2005.”

Fasel then focused on Louie’s lies and disinformation. Did he directly contribute to the delayed prosecution by spinning false narratives that misled investigators?

Again, Fasel was skeptical. Detectives knew weeks after Linda’s death – from her friend Harriet Neves – that she was not suicidal. That should have prompted a more aggressive investigation at the time, the judge said.

The judge viewed Louie’s lies as an excuse for the failure of law enforcement and prosecutors to conduct a thorough and timely investigation three decades earlier. He dismissed the prosecution’s claim as “completely without merit.”

“The court finds that there was no full investigation into the death of Ms Cummings (in 1974) … following which a decision was made to discontinue the case … which resulted in the destruction – or failure to obtain, retain and preserve – relevant physical and documentary evidence.”

Fasel concluded: “The motion to dismiss is granted.”

It was a punch in the gut, a disappointment without precedent in my career. Linda’s killer would never be brought to justice. It seemed like a tragic reality. It was still sinking in.

Louie celebrated. John Barnett grabbed his hand and said, “You can go.”

And yet there I sat, still numb, a journalist who had allegedly persuaded and pressured a seasoned prosecutor to open a flawed murder case 31 years too late.

I sat there and watched as a murderer with a huge grin on his face got away with murder. Again.

I had to get out of there.

Coming Friday, part five: The case of the Golden State Killer, an intriguing background to the book that raises more questions.