Daughter, 3 Others Arrested in Killing of Her Father

A week after she had called sheriff’s deputies to report finding her 72-year-old father murdered in his bed, a Mission Viejo woman was arrested Saturday on suspicion of hiring the killers so she could inherit “several hundred thousand dollars,� a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Deborah Ann Werner, 40, and three other suspects were held in lieu of $250,000 bail each in Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The victim, David Werner, a retired stockbroker and businessman, was found at 1 a.m. April 16 with a knife plunged into his neck, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson. An autopsy showed that Werner had been smothered before he had been stabbed.

But the disarray in the house in the 27000 block of El Moro immediately raised suspicions that the scene had been faked, Olson said.

“It appeared the scene was made to look like a burglary scene,� he said. “There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was missing.�

Olson said inconsistencies in Deborah Werner’s story focused suspicions on her.

Late Friday and early Saturday, investigators arrested Werner, Carrie Mae Chidester, 20, of Huntington Beach; Charles L. Clemmons, 20, of Anaheim, and Miguel Ruiz, 21, of Garden Grove.

Deborah Werner has a daughter who reportedly is a friend of Chidester. Chidester is Clemmons’ girlfriend, a friend of Clemmons said Saturday.

Werner hired Ruiz and Clemmons to kill her father and left the home’s sliding glass door unlocked for them, Olson said. The two men smothered David Werner with a pillow, then Clemmons plunged a 12-inch butcher knife into Werner’s neck to be certain he was dead, Olson said.

The men overturned some chairs and tables in the house to simulate a burglary but apparently took nothing, Olson said.

All four suspects gathered later that night at a nearby convenience store, and a $3,000 check was given as payment for the killing, Olson said. An additional $1,000 in cash was promised but never delivered, he said.

Olson described Deborah Werner as a bookkeeper who worked as a liquor store clerk. Family acquaintances said that in the years after she was divorced, she had worked at several jobs, such as department store clerk.

One acquaintance said there had been friction between father and daughter because David Werner had not approved of her husband, but that friction had disappeared with Deborah Werner’s divorce.

“She had trouble with her ex-husband,� said a family friend who asked not to be identified. Deborah Werner, the friend said, “moved from job to job. With someone of David Werner’s education and business acumen, she definitely was a weak link.�

Both of David Werner’s sons had become successful professionals, the friend said.

After David Werner, a widower, had remarried and then filed for divorce, his daughter moved into his Mission Viejo house, which he rented, to help him through the ordeal, the friend said. They had only lived there about a year, neighbors said.

“His daughter was very supportive,� said Castas A. Ladikos of Brea, David Werner’s divorce attorney. “She’d come to court with him. When I spoke to her about him, she was very supportive.�

Ladikos said she telephoned him after her father was killed, asking whether Ladikos would handle her father’s will in probate. Ladikos referred her to another attorney, he said.

“From what she told me, the will was in thirds. She and her two brothers would each get a third,� Ladikos said.

He said he would be “real surprised� if the estate amounted to “several hundred thousand dollars� as estimated by sheriff’s investigators. “I handled his divorce. Unless he’s got some life insurance, he just didn’t have that kind of money.�

Another attorney who had counseled David Werner during business deals said Werner’s estate, if liquidated, “would be more than an insignificant sum.� But it would be “very difficult� to quickly convert Werner’s investments into cash, he added.

He said Werner had led a varied life that included work as a cattle rancher, appraiser, oil developer and stockbroker.

Olson declined to elaborate on what led investigators to the suspects. He said, however, that the first arrest was of Clemmons, at 7:05 p.m. Friday, after he was brought to the Sheriff’s Department and interrogated.

Clemmons told investigators that he is a construction worker and gave them an Anaheim address as his home. But Terre Boudreau, who lives at that address, said Clemmons was living with Chidester, his girlfriend, in Huntington Beach.

Chidester was questioned at the station Friday evening along with Clemmons and was arrested at 7:15 p.m. She listed her employment as telemarketing, Olson said.

When Boudreau, 20, was told about Clemmons’ arrest, she said she found it difficult to believe. Clemmons lived in her family’s home for several months, she said.

“He’s like a child,� she said about Clemmons. “He gets a friend, a guy, and he begins to look like him, he walks like him, he dresses like him. . . . I think he can be very easily convinced to do something, but I wouldn’t think this would’ve been possible.

“He couldn’t have done this,� she said, crying. “He’s not capable of murder.�

She added, “When he’s mad, he just flexes his muscle, but he doesn’t hurt anyone.�

She said Clemmons went from job to job and always seemed to be short of money.

Ruiz, described as a car lube technician, was arrested at 12:20 a.m. Saturday at his home in Garden Grove. Police waited at his house later Saturday morning and throughout the afternoon until they received a warrant to search it for evidence. His mother and brother refused to comment.

Deborah Werner was brought to the station, interrogated and arrested at 1:25 a.m. Saturday.

Werner’s neighbors in Mission Viejo were relieved to hear that suspects had been arrested, although many were surprised that Deborah Werner was one of the them.

“I am so shocked,� said one woman who lived near them. “But in a way I’m relieved. . . . I haven’t been sleeping very well. I went out and bought new locks for all the windows this week.�

Bryan Cianella, another neighbor, said most of the neighbors did not know Werner well because of the age difference between him and the others, most of them younger couples with children.

“He talked to everybody but he wasn’t that close to anybody,� he said.