Trial Set in Man’s Killing

A woman accused of fatally shooting a 71-year-old Korean War veteran at his mountain cabin, then chopping off his head and rolling it down Mt. Baldy, was ordered to stand trial for murder Wednesday by a San Bernardino County judge.

Marcia Ann Johnson, 42, told a detective that she shot the man and severed his head, hands and feet with a chainsaw because he repeatedly exposed himself to her, according to testimony. Authorities allege that the slaying was part of a scheme to steal his money.

Johnson has been charged with more than 40 criminal counts, including murder, elder abuse and insurance fraud for allegedly siphoning $250,000 from the victim’s estate. A friend of Johnson’s, Judy Gellert, 51, is charged with insurance fraud, elder abuse and grand theft. The alleged crime occurred in September 1999, but an arrest was not made until last October.

Steve Willms, the public defender representing Johnson, said his client is innocent. “In the end, the evidence will show that she did not murder him,” he said.

She remains in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, and bail has been set at $1.5 million. Gellert has been released on bail of $500,000. Her attorney, Brian J. White, said she is innocent too. He added: “This is the weirdest case I’ve ever worked on.”

The victim, Jack Irwin, had lived in a small, one-bedroom cabin near the ski lifts on Mt. Baldy since the mid-1970s, said Sandy Bailey, a friend who lived nearby. Irwin had difficulty talking because of a disability and had problems walking due to a leg injury.

He rarely left the mountain, Bailey said. “The only place he went in his whole life was to go to the market to get bread and peanut butter and to the gas station,” she said.

Then, in the summer of 1999, Irwin abruptly decided to sell his cabin to the two defendants; it remains unclear exactly how Irwin met them. At the time, Irwin told Bailey that he was weary of the long winters on Mt. Baldy and that he was moving to the warmer Upland.

In August 1999, Irwin signed a trust that would hand over his belongings to the women in the event of his death, according to the testimony of Sgt. Robert Dean, who said that Johnson had given him a lengthy statement after her arrest.

Irwin moved to Upland but the following month returned to the mountain and went for a car ride with Johnson. She later told Dean that Irwin exposed himself to her several times and that she subsequently “snapped” because she had been molested as a child, according to testimony.

Police allege that when they returned to the cabin, Johnson shot Irwin in the head. She then retrieved a chainsaw from the cabin and cut off Irwin’s head, feet and hands, which she loaded into her SUV, authorities said.

As she drove down Mt. Baldy, Johnson allegedly pulled over and took Irwin’s head and heaved it down the hill while screaming obscenities at it, Dean said in his testimony. She left his torso on the mountain in a sleeping bag, according to prosecutors. To date, no body parts have been recovered.

Johnson then drove to Upland and bought new tires for her car, according to authorities. She also had her SUV washed. Apparently, employees at the wash didn’t notice the remaining body parts, which authorities believe were in plastic storage boxes in the rear of the truck. Afterward, she allegedly drove across the San Gabriel Mountains to Wrightwood and disposed of the rest of the body.

On the day that Irwin allegedly was killed, prosecutors said, the women withdrew $4,000 from his bank account. “Before they met Irwin, each of their bank accounts had $1 or less,” said Tristan Svare, the prosecutor with the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

Irwin lent them the money to buy his cabin, according to court documents.

On Oct. 3, 1999, Johnson filed a missing person’s report on Irwin with the Upland Police Department, said Det. Steve Foulks, who investigated the case. When approached by authorities, Johnson said that she drove Irwin to a train station and that he was planning to travel to Washington state; she was concerned because he had never returned.

Soon after, several residents of Mt. Baldy Village called to report their suspicions about Johnson and Gellert.

Then Irwin’s cabin burned down in August 2000. “As soon as I walked in and saw it, it looked like arson to me,” said Bill Stead, 73, chief of the Mt. Baldy Volunteer Fire Department.

Foulks interviewed Johnson several times. She continued to say that Irwin had taken a train to Washington state and had not returned. Foulks referred the case to the San Bernardino County D.A.’s elder abuse division, which in September 2002 brought in the Sheriff’s Department.

Dean said his investigators wiretapped Johnson’s phone and obtained the final evidence they needed to make an arrest. The following month she was taken into custody at a motel in El Cajon, outside San Diego.

The pretrial hearing lasted three days in San Bernardino County Superior Court. During the hearing, Johnson’s attorneys said there were inconsistencies in her statement to police that may indicate it is not true, according to a report in the Inland Valley Voice newspaper. Johnson’s and Gellert’s arraignments are scheduled for April 15.

Residents of Mt. Baldy Village said Wednesday that they were surprised the investigation took so long; police maintain it was a complex case made more difficult by the lack of a body.

Bailey praised prosecutors for pushing forward on the case but added: “I really believe [the Upland police] believed those girls for a long time.”