The Richard Ramirez trial ended on September 20, 1989, when a Los Angeles Superior Court jury convicted the “Night Stalker” of 13 murders and 30 other felonies committed across Southern California in 1984 and 1985. Judge Michael A. Tynan sentenced him to death on November 7, 1989. Ramirez spent more than 23 years on death row at San Quentin and died of cancer in 2013 without being executed.
Arrest and Charges
Ramirez was captured on August 31, 1985, in East Los Angeles after residents recognized him from photographs police had released two days earlier. He spotted his own picture on the front page of a Spanish-language newspaper in a liquor store, fled, tried to steal a car, and then tried to carjack a woman before her husband, Manuel De La Torre, struck him with a steel rod. Three neighbors helped subdue him until police arrived.1Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Captured by East Los Angeles Residents When taken into custody, Ramirez reportedly told police, “Thank God, you came.”2Oxygen. Night Stalker Richard Ramirez Beaten by Los Angeles Mob
A felony complaint was filed on September 3, 1985.3Stanford Supreme Court of California Resources. People v. Ramirez At his arraignment on October 24, 1985, Ramirez pleaded not guilty to 68 felonies, including 14 counts of murder. He grinned at the gallery, displayed a pentagram and the number 666 drawn on his left palm, and shouted “Hail Satan!” as he was led out.4United Press International. Night Stalker Suspect Shouts Hail Satan in Courtroom
After a 29-day preliminary hearing before Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson, Ramirez was ordered on May 6, 1986, to stand trial on 14 murder counts and 36 other felonies. Nelson dismissed 18 additional counts at the prosecution’s request and ruled that the multiple murders and murders committed during robberies were special circumstances making Ramirez eligible for the death penalty.5New York Times. Trial Is Ordered in Murders of 14
The Crimes He Was Tried For
The charges covered a spree that ran from June 1984 to August 1985 and targeted victims in their homes across the greater Los Angeles area, almost always at night. The 13 murder victims ranged in age from 30 to 84:
- Jennie Vincow, 79, Eagle Rock, June 27, 1984.
- Dayle Okazaki, 34, Rosemead, March 17, 1985.
- Tsai-Lian Yu, 30, Monterey Park, March 17, 1985.
- Vincent Zazzara, 64, and Maxine Zazzara, 44, Whittier, March 27, 1985.
- William Doi, 65, Monterey Park, May 14, 1985.
- Mabel Bell, 84, Monrovia, attacked May 29, 1985.
- Mary Louise Cannon, 77, Arcadia, July 2, 1985.
- Joyce Lucille Nelson, 61, Monterey Park, July 7, 1985.
- Maxon Kneiding, 68, and Lela Kneiding, 66, Glendale, July 20, 1985.
- Chainarong Khovananth, 32, Sun Valley, July 20, 1985.
- Elyas Abowath, 35, Diamond Bar, August 8, 1985.
Beyond the killings, prosecutors charged Ramirez with attempted murders, rapes, forcible sodomy, and burglaries. Several surviving victims later identified him in court.6United Press International. List of Victims of Night Stalker Richard Ramirez
The Evidence at Trial
Prosecutors P. Philip Halpin and Alan Yochelson built the case on converging physical and forensic proof. A fingerprint pulled from a stolen 1976 orange Toyota station wagon abandoned in downtown Los Angeles was matched by the Orange County crime lab to police records of Ramirez, who had prior arrests for auto theft and petty theft.7CBS News. Richard Ramirez Night Stalker Murders
Ballistics analysis tied multiple scenes together. The same .22-caliber weapon linked the Okazaki, Kneiding, and Khovananth murders, and shell casings connected a Northridge shooting to a Diamond Bar killing and to the murder of Peter Pan in San Francisco. Avia aerobic shoe prints appeared at the Zazzara home, the Nelson home, and other scenes. Inside the stolen Toyota, police found a business card for a Chinatown dentist who had treated a patient using the alias “Richard Mena” five days before several attacks. Investigators recovered 84 pieces of stolen property from Ramirez’s acquaintances and relatives, and victims or their families identified the items.8Los Angeles Times. Trial Is Ordered in Murders of 14
The defense, led by brothers Daniel and Arturo Hernandez and later joined by Roy Clark, focused on eyewitness reliability. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus testified about memory decay, stress, and cross-racial identification. Defense attorneys argued that officers may have signaled witnesses at lineups, challenged hair and blood evidence at certain scenes, and offered an alibi placing Ramirez in Texas during three of the attacks.9FindLaw. People v. Ramirez
Jury Selection and Testimony
Jury selection began on July 21, 1988, and ran roughly six months. Both sides accused each other of racially motivated challenges, with prosecutors allegedly targeting Black women and Latinos and the defense allegedly excluding white and Asian panelists. Judge Tynan noted the pattern would require a hearing under the California Supreme Court’s 1978 ruling in People v. Wheeler, which could have forced a mistrial. Anticipating a long case, Tynan seated 12 alternates, double the usual number.10Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Jury Selection11Washington Post. Night Stalker Jury Ordered to Start Anew
Testimony took another six months. Jurors heard from 165 witnesses, reviewed 654 exhibits, and worked through 8,000 pages of transcripts. Halpin presented the killings as murders committed during a series of burglaries and used graphic crime-scene photographs, testimony about pentagrams carved into victims, and evidence of near-decapitations.12Los Angeles Times. Prosecutor Phil Halpin Judge Tynan ordered Ramirez shackled in the courtroom, citing concerns about potential violence.13Metropolitan News-Enterprise. People v. Ramirez
Two Juror Crises During Deliberations
Deliberations were disrupted almost as soon as they began. On August 11, 1989, after 13 days of deliberations, Judge Tynan dismissed juror Robert Lee for repeatedly falling asleep. Lee had also been reported sleeping during testimony. An alternate replaced him, and the jury was ordered to start over.14United Press International. Stalker Juror Dismissed, Deliberations to Start Anew
Three days later, juror Phyllis Singletary, a 30-year-old Pacific Bell employee, was found beaten and shot to death in the Carson apartment she shared with her boyfriend, James Cecil Melton. Sheriff’s deputies tracked Melton to a Comfort Inn in Carson on August 15, where he shot himself on the motel balcony, leaving a note admitting to the killing.15Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Juror Slain16New York Times. Murder Trial Juror Slain in California; Suspect Is a Suicide
Singletary’s death was unrelated to the Ramirez case, but the defense worried that jurors’ grief could be projected onto the defendant and considered moving for a mistrial. Judge Tynan refused to suspend deliberations and told the panel, “No matter how deeply you feel about her death, it is in no way connected to the case of Richard Ramirez.” Singletary was replaced by an alternate, and the jury restarted deliberations for a third time on August 16, 1989.11Washington Post. Night Stalker Jury Ordered to Start Anew
Verdict and Death Sentence
On September 20, 1989, after 22 days of deliberation, the jury convicted Ramirez on all 43 counts: 13 murders, five attempted murders, four rapes, three counts of forcible oral copulation, four counts of forcible sodomy, and 14 burglaries. Ramirez waived his right to be present and remained in an adjacent holding cell in blue jail fatigues while the verdicts were read.17Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Verdict
The penalty phase opened on September 27, 1989. Neither side called witnesses. Halpin told jurors he would “let the 13 murders speak for themselves” and called Ramirez a “miserable human being” who had “forfeited his right to live.” Clark countered that “life without the possibility of parole is hell.” Ramirez waived his right to testify.18United Press International. Lawyers Argue for Death, Life in Prison for Stalker
After four days of deliberation, the jury recommended death on all 19 special-circumstance counts. Foreman Felipe G. Rodriguez said the panel had initially split 10-2 in favor of death and took nearly 100 secret ballots, citing the brutality of the attacks and the Satanic markings as decisive.19Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Jury Recommends Death Penalty
Judge Tynan formally imposed the death sentence on November 7, 1989. Ramirez, then 29, rocked back and forth and grinned at the gallery. Given the chance to speak, he delivered a rambling statement: “I am beyond your experience. I am beyond good and evil. Legions of the night, nightbreed, repeat not the errors of the Night Stalker and show no mercy. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all.” He called those in the courtroom “maggots” and “hypocrites.”20United Press International. Transcript of Ramirez Remarks at Sentencing21Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Sentenced to Death Colleen Nelson, granddaughter of victim Joyce Nelson, told the court Ramirez had “forfeited his right to live for what he did to my grandmother and all those other innocent people.”
Appeals
California law requires an automatic appeal in every death penalty case, and the trial record alone ran to nearly 50,000 pages.22Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Died of Complications Due to Lymphoma13Metropolitan News-Enterprise. People v. Ramirez23vLex. People v. Ramirez, 139 P.3d 64
On December 26, 2007, Ramirez filed a federal habeas corpus petition, Ramirez v. Ayers, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Judge James V. Selna granted a stay of execution on January 2, 2008. The case remained open with periodic status reports and was terminated on July 17, 2013, shortly after Ramirez’s death.24CourtListener. Richard Ramirez v. Robert L. Ayers
A Cold Case Match After Conviction
In 2009, San Francisco police announced that DNA had linked Ramirez to the April 10, 1984, rape and murder of nine-year-old Mei Leung in the basement of a Tenderloin residential hotel. Cold case inspectors Holly Pera and Joe Toomey extracted DNA from evidence collected at the scene, and a CODIS “cold hit” matched Ramirez, who had been staying at two Tenderloin hotels at the time.25CBS News. DNA Links Night Stalker Richard Ramirez to 1984 Killing of Mei Leung Inspectors served Ramirez with a warrant for a confirmation sample at San Quentin, and he made no comment. Prosecutors never filed formal charges, saying a DNA match alone was insufficient and that additional evidence needed to be reconstructed.26ABC7 News. DNA Links Night Stalker to 1984 Killing
Death on Death Row
Ramirez spent more than 23 years on death row at San Quentin State Prison. He married Doreen Lioy, a freelance editor who had written to him after his arrest, in a six-minute prison ceremony on October 3, 1996.27San Francisco Chronicle. Death Row Groom Wore Something Blue
Ramirez died on June 7, 2013, at Marin General Hospital at age 53. The Marin County coroner determined the cause was complications from B-cell lymphoma, with chronic substance abuse and chronic hepatitis C as contributing factors. He was one of 94 California death row inmates who had died in custody since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1978.28Marin Independent Journal. Marin Coroner: Serial Killer Richard Ramirez Died of Lymphoma Deputy District Attorney Alan Yochelson said that although the state never carried out the execution, “some measure of justice has been achieved” because Ramirez spent the rest of his life behind bars.22Los Angeles Times. Night Stalker Died of Complications Due to Lymphoma