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Davis Enterprise, The (CA)
Ruling on Hirschfield trial awaits
Lauren Keene/Enterprise staff writer
Published: February 25, 2007
SACRAMENTO — Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases Friday
at the preliminary hearing for the man accused of killing UC Davis
sweethearts John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves in December 1980.
But a ruling as to whether Richard Joseph Hirschfield
should stand trial won't be made until at least March 9, when attorneys
are scheduled to argue various motions in the death-penalty case.
Hirschfield, 58, is charged with two counts of murder with
special circumstances in connection with the students' deaths. He was
arrested in 2004, about two years after being linked to the case by DNA
evidence.A few months after the DNA match, Sacramento County sheriff's detectives confronted both Hirschfield
and his brother, Joseph, who lived in Rancho Cordova — not far from
where the slain students' bodies were found — around the time of the
murders.Joseph Hirschfield committed suicide a day after
that confrontation, a shocking twist to the case that was the subject
of much of Friday's testimony in Sacramento Superior Court.The sheriff's detectives questioned Richard Hirschfield's
younger brother on Nov. 19, 2002, at his workplace, a Cadillac
dealership where he was a mechanic, near his Beavercreek, Ore., home.He
came home from work about two hours earlier than usual that day, his
face reddened and looking "ready to explode," testified Dan Cabral, a
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department homicide detective who
interviewed his widow, Lana."He was home early and went straight for the booze," both of which were unusual behaviors, Cabral said.Joseph Hirschfield
left the house the next morning, seemingly headed for work. He was
scheduled to attend school afterward, but did not return home that
night — also out of the ordinary, Cabral said. The following morning,
Lana Hirschfield found her husband dead in his car inside their barn, where he had poisoned himself with carbon monoxide.On the car windshield and next to his body were pages of a suicide note, a redacted version of which was read in court Friday."I have been living with this horror for 20 years," Cabral read. "I was there, my DNA is there. ...I am so sorry."Despite his claim, Joseph Hirschfield's
DNA has not been detected on any evidence in the case. The sheriff's
detectives who questioned him did not accuse him of the crimes, but
rather asked where he lived and about his brother's whereabouts at the
time of the murders.Although the suicide note also reportedly implicates Richard Hirschfield,
Judge Trena Burger-Plavan, who is presiding over the preliminary
hearing, ruled earlier this month that parts of the note referring to
him could not be introduced in court, since the note's author cannot be
cross-examined.An investigator for the Sacramento County district attorney's office, Derrick Greenwood, also testified Friday regarding Hirschfield's
1975 conviction for a robbery/rape at a Mountain View apartment, a
crime that prosecutor Dawn Bladet has said bore striking similarities
to the 1980 murders.
Hirschfield was released from a Vacaville prison about five
months before Riggins' and Gonsalves' deaths. Authorities believe he
may have become familiar with Gonsalves after seeing her at UCD, where
he reportedly sat in on classes but was not enrolled at the school.
Hirschfield has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
His attorneys have challenged the validity of the DNA evidence, which
they say may have been mishandled or contaminated over the past 26
years. They also presented testimony from a retired Davis police
detective who built a case around four other suspects in the murders
during the late 1980s.Supervising Assistant Public Defender
Linda Parisi also indicated Friday she plans to contest the legality of
a cell search conducted in November 2002, when Hirschfield was serving time for child molestation in a Washington state prison.While Hirschfield
was submitting hair and body-fluid samples for DNA testing, a prison
investigator initiated the search, which reportedly revealed a series
of maps with the words "Davis," "Sacto" and "Sabrina" written on them."It
is often that individuals keep records of their crimes — newspaper
clippings, writings, and it is often found inside prison cells,"
Cabral, the sheriff's detective, testified Friday.Originally expected to last one to two days, Hirschfield's
preliminary hearing has instead stretched out over a month due to the
large number of witnesses brought in to testify, as well as a lack of
available court days for the case to be heard.The hearing is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. March 9 in Department 42 of the Sacramento County Courthouse.— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 747-8048.Sunday, February 25, 2007
Copyright, 2007, The Davis Enterprise. All Rights Reserved.
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