Famalaro Penalty Phase Interrupted

SANTA ANA â€”  Defense attorneys in the murder trial of John J. Famalaro announced Monday that they have eliminated 15 of their scheduled witnesses, causing a postponement of the trial’s penalty phase.

A jury of nine women and three men took about five hours last month to convict Famalaro of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Newport Beach resident Denise Huber and must now decide whether he should be executed for the crimes or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The change in strategy has resulted in the penalty phase being delayed until Thursday because the final witnesses are not yet available.

Among those who will not be called are experts who were to testify about the defendant’s emotional and psychological problems. Those issues have already been touched on by other witnesses, Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia said.

“We want to avoid redundancy,� Gumlia said outside court. “Some witnesses testified to the psychological aspects in more detail than we thought they would. Most of the points we want to make are currently in the record.�

Those points include: episodes of manic depression; an obsessive-compulsive disorder that the defense says led Famalaro to keep Huber’s body in a freezer for three years; a break-up with a girlfriend shortly before the Huber murder and a call to a suicide hotline; and an experience with another former girlfriend who was pregnant with Famalaro’s child in the 1980s but left him and gave their child up for adoption against Famalaro’s will.

There has also been lengthy testimony about a bizarre and traumatic childhood with a mother who Famalaro’s older sister testified is mentally ill.

“We are pleased with the way things have gone in the penalty phase,� Gumlia said. “It will be up to us tie together in [closing] argument as to what it means.�

Final witnesses will include the defendant’s niece, with whom Famalaro was especially close, and a woman who the defendant once saved from a mugger. At this point, there are no plans to have Famalaro take the stand, Gumlia said.

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Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans has tried to focus on areas of normalcy during Famalaro’s youth, including his going away to boarding school and spending a lot of time with his maternal grandmother.

Evans also called on the victim’s parents, Dennis and Ione Huber, to testify about the impact the murder has had on their lives. The Hubers spoke of their ongoing grief and the agony they endured while waiting three years to find out what happened to their daughter, who disappeared after a tire on her car blew out on the Corona del Mar Freeway on June 3, 1991.

Huber’s body was discovered inside a freezer stored in a Ryder rental truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s Arizona home in July 1994.

The defense expects to rest its case Thursday and the jury is likely to begin deliberating early next week following closing arguments.

Famalaro, who turns 40 today, walked into court Monday without the aid of a wheelchair or crutches for the first time in a week. The defendant is suffering from an infection in his left leg. He was released from Western Medical Center-Santa Ana over the weekend and his condition is improving, Gumlia said.