Local News in Brief : Attorney’s Illness Delays Stalker Trial
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The Night Stalker trial has been postponed for the rest of this week because of an unspecified illness of Daniel V. Hernandez, attorney for defendant Richard Ramirez.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan on Tuesday recessed the trial until next Monday, sending the 12 jurors and 12 alternates home for the week.
Hernandez is undergoing medical tests in San Jose, where he lives, according to Richard Salinas, a paralegal assisting the Ramirez defense.
Until the postponement, the trial had been progressing smoothly, with prosecutors presenting evidence in chronological order. So far, 30 prosecution witnesses have testified. The three-week-old trial is expected to take as much as two years to complete.
Ramirez, a 28-year-old drifter from El Paso, Tex., is charged with 13 murders and 30 other felonies in a terrifying spree of nighttime residential attacks in 1984 and 1985. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.
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