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Jury deliberations will resume today, following a nearly two-week holiday break, in the murder trial of two Bay Area men accused in the financially motivated stabbing murder of a Palm Springs retiree.
Lawyers wrapped up their cases on Dec. 20 after 33 court days spread over nearly three months, and the jury subsequently spent 2 1/2 days behind closed doors last month.
Before going on their holiday break on Dec. 22, the jurors posed more than a half-dozen questions regarding certain charges in the case against Miguel Bustamante and David Replogle, leading lawyers to believe they were close to a verdict.
Bustamante, 28, of Daly City, and Replogle, a 61-year-old San Francisco attorney, are accused, along with several others awaiting trial, of orchestrating the Dec. 5, 2008, stabbing death of 74-year-old Clifford Lambert in order to steal his money and possessions.
Bustamante, a former Castro District bartender, and Replogle face life prison terms without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria told jurors Lambert and Bustamante were involved in a “massive conspiracy” to loot the Palm Springs retiree of his worldly goods, and to “erase” him so he could not go to the police.
He is believed to have been buried in the desert, but his body has not been found.
In his closing argument, Replogle’s attorney, John Patrick Dolan, placed the blame for the killing, and the greed that DiMaria claims motivated it, squarely on the shoulders of Daniel Carlos Garcia and Kaushal Niroula, an acknowledged con man.
DiMaria has called the lot of the defendants “vultures,” sociopaths and con men out to enrich themselves at a lonely and vulnerable man’s expense — literally and figuratively.
Dolan characterized Niroula, a Nepal native who once claimed to be descended from royal blood, a “chameleon” and Garcia as a computer hacker, burglar and identity thief. He said the “greed” theory is “spot on” with respect to those men, who are yet to face trial.
“I don’t think together we could say enough bad things about Kaushal Niroula,” the attorney said.
Dolan contends that Niroula, via text messages, had suggested that Replogle could get his neck cut, or could be the target of a hit unless he followed instructions, and that Niroula impersonated Replogle.
The lawyer, said Dolan, “was threatened, he was coerced, he was intimidated” by Niroula.
Dolan told jurors that Craig McCarthy, who testified for the prosecution, participated in the Lambert killing but will get 25 years and four months when sentenced next month, and should be out in about 20 years or so, after serving 85 percent of his term. He will not face an indeterminate sentence that could have gone much longer, Dolan said.
“And he knows who gave (the lighter sentence) to him and who he owes,” Dolan said, suggesting that McCarthy’s testimony was tailored for the prosecution.
Dolan characterized prosecution witness-informant Arthur Jimenez as a “jailhouse rat” facing life in prison had he not testified against Replogle, and now expected to be out of prison in about 13 years.
Deputy Public Defender Joe Forth, who represents Bustamante, contends his client simply is suffering guilt by association.
Article source: http://www.mydesert.com/article/20110103/NEWS0802/110103001/Jury-deliberates-today-in-Palm-Springs-murder-case
Category: Prison Time