SYLMAR : Man Faces Retrial in Fatal Lye Attack

A Las Vegas man, whose murder conviction for killing a Sylmar woman by throwing lye in her face was overturned by a federal appeals court, will be retried in the 1980 slaying, prosecutors said Tuesday.

During a brief court hearing, an Aug. 30 trial date was scheduled for Ricardo H. Robinson, who is accused of conspiring with a hit man hired by an ex-fiance of the victim to disfigure the beautiful blond woman.

Patricia Worrell was attacked on the night of Aug. 14, 1980, when she answered the door of her Sylmar home and lye was thrown in her face, causing scarring and blindness in one eye.

However, she ingested some of the caustic chemical, which entered her bloodstream. Worrell bled to death 10 days after the assault.

Robinson was originally convicted in a trial with Worrell’s ex-fiance, Richard Morton Gilman. Both men were found guilty in April, 1982, of first-degree murder, conspiracy and mayhem.

The man originally hired by Gilman, Bobby Ray Savage, was also convicted of murder in a trial that concluded in 1984.

Gilman and Savage are now serving their 25-years-to-life prison terms at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.

Robinson is being held without bail in County Jail after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he was denied his right to an attorney during his first interview with police.

The April, 1992, order followed an unsuccessful appeal path through the state courts.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert L. Cohen will retry the case, and Santa Monica attorney John Meyers will represent Robinson.

Both Cohen and Meyers said they have been fortunate in locating witnesses who testified in Robinson’s first trial.

Cohen said his investigators have even located a key witness in Lancaster, Pa. The witness, a former Las Vegas prostitute who said she put Savage in touch with Gilman, is now working as a nurse.