News Scrapbook 1985

ifter does double-murder turnaroun ~~ky man rejects confession, denies killing mother and child A Kentucky drifter once charged involving throat slashings similar to with the throat-slashing murders of a the Jacobs killings.

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. 0. 127,454)

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Though Massingale was only a few weeks away from standing trial for the Jaco?s murders, the .charges against him were dropped m Ja~~- ary and he was released from Jail where he had been held for 10 Massingale returned to his home- town of Harlan, Ky., and filed claims totaling $6 million against ~he ~ity

woman and 3-year-old child yester- day denied comitting the slayings de- spite his confes ion to the crimes, now charged to David Allen Lucas. Testlfying in the fifth day of Lucas' preliminary hearing, Johnny Massin- cause he fear~d for his life. According to testimony at a pre- liminary hearing last year, Massin- gale Jr., 31, acknowledged confessing months. to the crimes but said he did so be-

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Jll/e,i's ,, &-~ I the bathroom of the house, a fact that investigators felt only the killer would know. Massin_g~le told the court he made up that story. He also testified that he never met Jimmy Joe Nelson, another drifter who testified in the past that he met Massingale while hitchhiking and Massingale bragged Iha! he ~ad "cut off the beads of a woman and a boy" in Cailforma. The statement from Nelson now serving time in Texas on an unrelated murder ch~rge eventual- ly led to Massingale's arrest. ' /. The preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge Herbert Exarbos will determine whether Lucas P C 8 hr 1880

will stand trial for the Jacobs murders and that of real estate saleswoman Gayle Roberta Garcia, 29. Garcia's body was discovered Dec. 8, 1981, in the back bedroom of a Spring Valley home she was showing to prospective renters. Lucas already faces a Superior Court trial Oct. 1 on charges of murdering Amber Fisher, 3, and her baby sitter, Rhonda Strang, 24, who were slain Oct. 23 in Strang's Lakeside home, and Anne Catherine Swanke, 22, a Urij.vei:sit¥ of Sae Llw110 honor student who disap- peared Nov. 20 in La Mesa. He also is charged with kidnapping and attempted murder in the case of Jody Santiago, 29, a Seattle woman abducted from the park- ing of an El Cajon nightclub June 9, 1984.

and county for falsely chargmg him. gale confessed to the May 4, 1979, Massingale also filed a $3 million killings of Suzanne Camile ~acobs, clai~ against the state ~f Kentucky, 31, and her son, Colin, in their Nor- allegmg be was coerced mto the con- mal Heights home. His attorneys ar- fession by Kentucky state trooper gued that Massingale - who is mild- Dennis Pace, who had assisted San ly retarded - was coerced into the Diego investigators. confession by homicide investigators, Pace testified yesterday that the who fed him details of the crime. confession was voluntary, denying But the investigators themselves that be coerced Massingale by began to doubt the credibility of the threatening him with ~he deat~ pen- confession after Lucas was arrested alty. The trooper said Massmgale in December and charged with three knew the Jacobs boy was killed in murders and attempted murder, all Please see LUC. B-2

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. O. 127,454)

3 1985

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State hospital to take 20 CMH patients 5,,-/ By Betsy Bates Tr1b11ne Health Writer Nearly a quarter of the patients at County Mental Health ho pital in Hiller t are being tran ferred this week to Patton could accommodate the San Diego patients. "I first heard from them a week ago," Miller said. "Somehow, they bad more patients than they could care for." legal rights. Patients could file legal protests about such trans- fers, according to the advocacy office. The patients being transferred to Patton generally will spend more time hospitalized than they would if they remained at CMH, Mavritte said.

Mavritte said the county is barely meeting state require- ments for the ratio of doctors to patients because of a shortage of psychiatrists. A number of doctors have recently left CMH and the county is having difficulty recruiting replacements. The mental patients who will be transferred are all under conservatorships, which means they have been assigned legal guardians by the state to make major decisions for them. Aspokesman for the Patient Advocacy office at the Universi- tx.,.ot Sao Diego s;ud efforts were being made this week to consult every patient scheduled to be moved about his or her

State Mental Hospital mSan Bernardino because there are not enough county psychiatnsts left to give them adequate treat- ment, officials said yesterday. Ten patients were to leave by van today for the state hospital, and 10more will be moved to Patton on Friday, said Dr. Harold Mavritte, actmg medical director of the 92-bed acute mental hospital n ar the UCSD Medical Center. Patton Ex cutive Din:ctor Don z. Miller said a new ward had to be opened and taffed on a week's notice so the state hospital

"CMH is an acute care hospital, like an emergency hospital. We first assess the patients to come up with a diagnosis, and then devote our energy to getting the patients to a point where they can move on to another level," Mavritte said. Patton, said Mavritte, will continue treatment for the pa- tients who are coming out of their acute stages of mental illness. , Please see HILLCREST, r-9

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San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 127,454)

~~st [ Miller said if any of the civilly committed pa- tients Patton is receiving from San Diego are still acutely mentally ill, they will be turned back to the county. "I do not accept any acute patients. We can only deal with long-term patients," Miller said. Mavritte said the county hospital budgets for five full-time psychiatrists and one half-time psy- chiatrist, but now bas just three of those openings filled. An additional psychiatrist who normally works on the county's forensic evaluation team is assigned temporarily to CMH, Mavritte said. "This (transfer of patients) was the only re- course I had, in my professional opinion," Mav- ritte said. "I was faced with a situation where I did not

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the hospital, Steve Harmon, assistant deputy health director for mental health, told a citizens group last month. In the past year, CMH has been the subject of many state deficiency notices for lapses in staff- ing, treatment plans, medical records, arug stor- age and patient care. The county grand jury criti- cized the hospital's management and perform- ance and said if conditions there do not meet county standards, Health Director James Forde should resign or be fired. A state auditor general's study concluded last week that patients at CMH and the county's Edgemoor Geriatric Hospital could still be in danger because of managerial, technical and clin- ical problems at the institutions.

have an adequate psychiatric staff and did not know whether I would ever have." Mavritte said that although the hospital now just meets state requirements for psychiatrists, he could not guarantee "safe and effective" cov- erage for the hospital with the number of doctors he has. San Diego's psychiatric community was alert- ed in May to the crisis, Mavritte said. He said recruiting for psychiatrists may be easier now that the county Board of Supervisors has approved an 18 percent pay increase and a 3 percent increase in benefits for psychiatrists - "making us more competitive with the private sector." Troubles at the Hillcrest facility has made psy- chiatrists unenthusiastic about signing up with

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Seattle woman again names !l,~l~ Lucas asili•~~r attacker

"I could see his face in the rear view mirror in the car the entire trip," she said. "And once we got to the house be never bid his face ... There is not doubt." Santiago said she was particularly struck by Lucas' eyes. "The eyes are what stood out first and foremost," she said. "(They were) beady and bulging. It was like they didn't fit the sockets they were in." Aware that he was stretching Exarhos' patience - and Santiago's emotional state - with a series of ques- tion regarding details of the attack, Saunders at one point said he feared being held in contempt of court after Williams accused him of "badgering the hell out of the witness." Earlier in the proceedings Exarhos had warned Saun- ders he was about to "incur the wrath of the court," but after Saunders softened his questioning the judge took no action against him. Santiago testified against Lucas at another prelimi- nary hearing earlier this year, identifying him as her attacker. That hearing ended with Lucas being bound over for an Oct. 1 Superior Court trial on charges of murdering Amber Fisher, 3, and her baby sitter, Rhonda Strang, 24, who were slain Oct. 23 in Strang's Lakeside home; Anne Catherine Swanke, 22, a Universitkof San ~iil!'1 boaoc stvdent who disappeared m La esa on- ov. 20; and kidnapping and attempting to murder San- tiago. Prosecutors are now using her testimony to show the similarities between the attack on her and three other murder victims. All the victims had their throats sever- ly slashed. . The current preliminary hearing will determine whether Lucas stands trial for the May 4, 1979, murders of Suzanne Camille Jacobs, 31, and her son, Colin, 3, and that of real estate saleswoman Gayle Roberta Garci_,.,

Tr ibune Staf Writer A Seattle woman - fighting back tears and rage during an emotional day on the witness stand - yester- day identified David Allen Lucas as the man who kid- napped her and slashed her throat. It was the second time this year that Jody Santiago, 29, who was abducted from an El Cajon parking lot last summer, has confronted Lucas in court and identified him as the man who choked her into unconsciousness, then slit her throat. "Mr. Lucas is my assailant," Santiago said, staring at Lucas. "He's the one who attacked me!" By the time Santiago made those statements, emo- tions in the courtroom had grown so heated that Munici- pal Court Judge Herbert Exarhos decided to recess for lunch 10 minutes early. The emotions continued to rise in the afternoon session - with Santiago often holding back tears - ~using the court to recess twice to allow her to compose herself. Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Daniel Williams, Santiago said Lucas abducted her June 9, 1984, after she left an El Cajon nightclub and was walking back to her brother's apartment. ''The next thing I remember I had a knife to my throat and was told to come with him," she said. "He told me that I was to go with him and if I cried out or tried to get away I would have my neck slit." Santiago said Lucas took her to a home, where he tied her up, "and the next thing I knew I was being choked." Santiago said she the next thing she remembers is waking up several days later in the intensive-care unit of a local hospital where she was recuperating from a· • severe slash to her throat, cut fingers and two cracks in her skull. · Despite sometimes pointed questioning by defense at- torney William Saunders, Santiago insisted Lucas was

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