4 Separate Trials Sought for Defendant in Slayings

Attorneys for David Lucas have filed motions seeking four trials for their client, who is accused of six murders and one attempted murder.

Lucas, 30, of Spring Valley, is already facing two trials, set for Feb. 11 and June 4, but his defense attorneys have asked a judge to order two more trials.

The attorneys asked that the trial involving the Nov. 24, 1984, death of Anne Swanke, 22, of San Carlos, be separated from the murder trial stemming from the slayings of two Lakeside murder victims.

The attorneys argued that there were not enough similarities between Swanke’s death and the case involving Rhonda Strang, 24, and Amber Fisher, 3, whose throats were slashed Oct. 23, 1984.

They asked for a third trial on the attempted murder and kidnaping charges involving Jodie Santiago, 30, of Seattle, who has identified Lucas as the man who abducted her June 7, 1984, from an El Cajon restaurant and slashed her throat.

The June 4 trial involves murder charges in the 1979 deaths of Suzanne Jacobs, 31, her son, Colin, 3, of Normal Heights, and Gayle Garcia, 29, in 1981.