Alleged Night Stalker Victim : L.A. Deputy Describes Mutilation of Woman

As accused Night Stalker Richard Ramirez looked on with a wide grin, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy described in graphic detail Wednesday the mutilated body of victim Maxine Zazzara, discovered in her Whittier bedroom last March with her eyes gouged out.

“There was a lot of blood and disfiguration and the coroners examined that area and the eyes were missing,” sheriff’s deputy Russell Uloth testified, speaking slowly but firmly.

Uloth said that both Mrs. Zazzara, 44, a Downey attorney, and her husband, Vincent Zazzara, 64, were discovered with bullet holes in their heads March 29, 1985, in their ranch-style home.

Mrs. Zazzara also had a large T-shaped stab wound below her left breast, Uloth said. Upon closer examination, he added, investigators discovered the horrifying damage to her eyes as well as stab wounds to her neck, cheek, abdomen and pubic areas.

When Uloth, a 23-year sheriff’s veteran, described the wounds to the lower part of Mrs. Zazzara’s body, an animated Ramirez broke into a smile, and at one point, appeared to be laughing.

Later, defense attorney Arturo Hernandez denied that his client--who is charged with 14 murders and 54 other felonies in Los Angeles County between June, 1984, and August, 1985,--was mocking the witness.

“It wasn’t at all related to what the testimony was about,” Hernandez said. “I don’t think it’s a laughing matter for anyone, including our client.”

The strange scene climaxed a long session of gruesome testimony on the Zazzara murders and persistent bickering between Ramirez’s attorneys and Deputy Dist. Atty. P. Philip Halpin, who is prosecuting the case.

Early in the day, Hernandez requested an apology from Halpin for having called him “a clown” during a brief closed session in the judge’s chambers. Co-counsel Daniel Hernandez, moreover, asked that Halpin be held in contempt for having briefly disrupted Monday’s session by leaving the courtroom for about a minute while the hearing was still under way.

“Unless you are all very anxious to share the same cell, I would suggest that you stop using the court record to cast aspersions on each other,” Los Angeles Municipal Judge James J. Nelson testily replied.

Nelson will ultimately rule on whether Ramirez should stand trial in Superior Court on the charges, for which the 26-year-old drifter from El Paso could be sentenced to death if convicted.

The bodies of the Whittier couple were discovered by Bruno Polo, the manager of Circus Foods, a Whittier pizza parlor owned by Vincent Zazzara. Polo testified that he became suspicious when he found the Zazzaras’ front door ajar on the evening of March 28, when, as was his custom, he dropped the daily business receipts in their mail slot. Returning the next morning, Polo found the door in the same position, so he entered and discovered Zazzara’s body on the den couch, he said.

The body of Mrs. Zazzara--who was last seen alive March 27 at choir practice at the Trinity Baptist Church in Downey--was found, semi-clothed in her bed, by authorities summoned to the scene.

None of the witnesses called Wednesday linked Ramirez to the crime. Halpin said, however, that three more witnesses are scheduled to testify in the Zazzara murders today.

On cross-examination, the defense persistently questioned whether the murders may have resulted from alleged mob or narcotic sales involvement on the part of Vincent Zazzara.

According to sheriff’s Deputy Paul Archambault Jr., Zazzara’s son Peter told him at the crime scene that “his father was involved in Mafia operations” and narcotics sales. Later, Uloth acknowledged in cross-examination that one of Zazzara’s sons told him that Zazzara had once served time in federal prison.

Nelson permitted the defense to pursue the line of questioning, despite Halpin’s objections. Only after hearing the replies did the judge agree that they constituted hearsay evidence and he then accepted Halpin’s motions that they be stricken from the court record.

Neither the defense attorneys nor Halpin would divulge further information concerning the allegations after the court session.

Ramirez, who has remained docile through much of the hearing, looked on attentively Wednesday. The defendant, who once shouted “Hail Satan!” at the conclusion of an earlier pre-trial session, grew particularly animated, however, after Uloth stared directly at him for several seconds a few minutes before he described the gory scene at the Zazzara residence.

In another development Wednesday, Halpin disclosed that he will present no evidence on May 9, 1985, burglary and robbery charges attributed to Ramirez. The victim, Clara Hadsall, 85, of Monrovia, died last October.

Nelson, however, denied a defense motion that the charges in the Hadsall case be dismissed immediately.