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Thread: David Leslie Murtishaw - California

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    David Leslie Murtishaw - California

    Murtishaw C04400.JPG


    Facts of the Crime:

    On April 9, 1978, James Lee Henderson, 24, of Murrieta; Martha Bernice Soto, 22, and Ingrid M. Etayo, 22, both of Los Angeles, were all shot to death in an ambush by David Leslie Murtishaw. They had been making a student film in the Mojave Desert. Lance Buflo, Soto's 22-year-old husband, was the lone survivor. He was wounded in the hand. Henderson, a senior at the University of La Verne in Pomona, was described by a friend at the time as a "happy-go-lucky guy," good-looking and independent of spirit. His parents accepted their son's bachelor's degree less than three months after the triple murder. Students at La Verne dedicated a book of poetry and planted a tree in his memory. Soto had been a student at Pepperdine University in Malibu for two years, but dropped out in December 1977. Etayo, described as bright and full of anticipation, was to start post-graduate studies in economics.

    Murtishaw was sentenced to death in Kern County on April 27, 1979.

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    High Court Upholds San Quentin Death Sentence For 3rd Time

    SAN QUENTIN STATE PRISON (BCN) — The California Supreme Court Tuesday upheld the death penalty of one of the longest-serving residents of the state’s death row.

    In a decision issued in San Francisco, the court unanimously affirmed the penalty of David Murtishaw, 53, for fatally shooting three students who were making a film in the Mohave Desert on April 9, 1978.

    his is the third time the case has come before the state high court.

    Murtishaw was initially convicted and sentenced to death in Kern County Superior Court in 1979 for murdering James Henderson, 24, Marti Soto, 21, and Ingrid Etayo, 22, with a rifle.

    The three victims were helping University of Southern California film student Lance Wyatt make a film about a man stranded in the desert. Soto, who was married to Wyatt, and Henderson were acting in the film, and Etayo helped with props.

    Murtishaw and his brother-in-law had driven to the desert with their rifles after drinking heavily and were practicing shooting a beer can on the hood of their car.

    In a later confession to police, Murtishaw said he and his brother-in-law had drunk three to four six-packs of beer that day. He said he was “scared and just mixed up” and fired after one of the students shot from a blank pistol used in one of the film scenes.

    A prison inmate later testified, however, that Murtishaw told him he killed the students to steal their car to sell for drugs.

    Wyatt was injured but survived and ran to a highway and summoned help.

    In its first ruling on the case in 1981, the state high court upheld Murtishaw’s conviction but ordered a new death penalty trial. Murtishaw was again sentenced to death, and the state Supreme Court upheld the penalty in 1989.

    But in 2001, a federal appeals court ordered another death penalty trial.

    Murtishaw was resentenced to death in Kern County Superior Court and then appealed again to the state Supreme Court.

    In Tuesday’s decision, the court rejected a series of appeal claims that challenged trial court rulings and the state’s death penalty law.

    Justice Carlos Moreno said the court had previously rejected the challenges to the law in other cases.

    “We see no reason to reconsider any of these rulings,” Moreno wrote.

    Murtishaw’s lawyer in the appeal was not immediately available for comment.

    http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...-for-3rd-time/

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    Sentencing case fully briefed before the California Supreme Court on December 29, 2009. Awaiting decision.

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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders Murtishaw's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis DENIED.

    On appeal from the California Supreme Court.

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    San Quentin prisoner on Death Row for murder of 3 USC students dies in his cell

    A San Quentin State Prison inmate who has been on Death Row since 1978 for the murder of three college students died in his cell of natural causes, corrections officials announced this morning.

    David Leslie Murtishaw, 54, was found unresponsive in his cell last night and pronounced dead at 10:36 p.m., official said.

    He had been sentenced to death in the slayings of three University of Southern California students -- James Lee Henderson, Martha Bernice Soto and Ingrid M. Etayo – who were killed while making a student film in the desert.

    His death leaves 718 other condemned inmates on Death row, the nation’s largest.

    Murtishaw is the second Death Row inmate to die in the past week. Last Thursday, Brandon Wilson, a Wisconsin drifter convicted in the 1998 slaying of a 9-year-old Oroville boy, hanged himself.

    Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/23/407...#ixzz1eYkwQi5b

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