Murder Charge Against Man Accused of Poisoning Business Rival Dropped

VENTURA —  A former Altadena crematorium operator who had been charged with poisoning a business rival with oleander walked out of the Ventura County Jail a free man on Thursday, declaring: “I’m innocent.”

But even though prosecutors dropped a murder charge against David W. Sconce after failing to find oleander in the victim’s remains, they vowed to continue testing for other poisons.

Calling the 35-year-old Sconce “a coldblooded murderer,” Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said Ventura and Los Angeles counties will share the cost of the tests, estimated at $20,000 each. He said the work will take about six months.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office still is considering prosecuting Sconce in other cases in which he is alleged to have conspired to murder his grandparents, a former employee and a Los Angeles prosecutor, a spokeswoman said.

Bradbury was forced to withdraw the murder charge because a New York scientist found no trace of oleander in the remains of Timothy Waters, a Burbank mortician.

When Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones granted the dismissal motion, Sconce turned to his attorney, Roger Jon Diamond of Santa Monica, and shook hands.

“This is the best example of why there should be no death penalty anywhere,” Diamond said later. “They wanted this man to be executed . . . for a crime that was nonexistent.”

Sconce said: “I always knew I would walk out. I’m innocent. I should say I’m going to Disneyland, but I’m going to lunch.”

Investigators say illegal activities at Sconce’s Coastal Cremations Inc.--and his efforts to keep the crimes from being discovered--led to the charge against him.

Several rival crematorium operators threatened to expose Sconce for conducting multiple cremations and taking gold from the teeth of corpses--charges he eventually admitted. To discourage them from going to authorities, Sconce hired thugs to beat them up, investigators charged.

One of the targets was Timothy Waters, who was attacked in his Burbank office in February, 1985. Sconce eventually pleaded guilty to assault in that case, and was sentenced to five years on all of the charges. With credit for good behavior and time previously served, he completed that term last October.

Two months after the attack in his office, Waters became ill while visiting his sister’s home in Malibu. He died two days later.

The Ventura County medical examiner’s office at first said the death was related to Waters’ weight--more than 300 pounds. But in 1988, one of the men involved in the attack on Waters told police that Sconce had boasted about poisoning the mortician with a spiked drink.

A Pennsylvania toxicologist, Frederick Rieders, examined Waters’ remains and declared that they contained oleander. Sconce was charged in February, 1990, even though prosecutors never offered an explanation for how Sconce could have administered the poison.

Early this year, prosecutors began to have doubts about Rieders’ results and agreed to share costs with the defense for another test by a Cornell University professor, Jack Henion.

Late Wednesday, Henion reported finding no oleander.

Times staff writer Carol Watson contributed to this story.