Mortician’s Conspiracy Appeal Goes to High Court

A former Pasadena mortician cleared of charges that he murdered a business rival is asking the state Supreme Court to throw out an unrelated charge involving an alleged conspiracy to kill another rival.

Attorneys for David Wayne Sconce, 35, contend there is no proof there was a conspiracy to kill Elie Estephan, who was never harmed. If there was a plan against Estephan, Sconce withdrew from it, they said.

Sconce’s attorney, Christopher Blake, has filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to review a March 18 state Court of Appeals ruling that the charge against Sconce should not have been dismissed simply because he withdrew from the conspiracy, court records state. The appeals court reversed a Pasadena Superior Court judge’s 1989 decision to dismiss a charge that Sconce planned with others in 1985 to murder Estephan, the former owner of the Van Nuys-based Cremation Society of California.