‘85 Death in Sconce Mortuary Case Now Considered Murder

PASADENA — The criminal investigation into Pasadena crematorium operator David Sconce has been haunted by the death three years ago of Timothy Waters in Ventura County.

Witnesses have testified in court that Sconce told them he poisoned Waters, who ran a cremation service in Burbank, although coroners had ruled that he died of natural causes.

But this week, the Ventura County medical examiner-coroner’s office revealed that laboratory tests have found traces of oleander poison in Waters’ preserved blood and tissue samples.

Chief Medical Examiner Dr. F. Warren Lovell said Waters’ death has now been reclassified as murder.

‘Lethal Levels’

“Toxicological tests were carried out by two reference laboratories. Both found lethal levels of oleander, the toxic extract obtained from oleander leaves,” Lovell said.

Ventura County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron James said prosecutors are reviewing the evidence and have not determined whether murder charges will be filed against Sconce.

Guy E. O’Brien, Sconce’s attorney, said his client denies any involvement in Waters’ death.

Sconce and his parents, Jerry Sconce and Laurieanne Lamb Sconce, are already facing a total of 67 felony and misdemeanor counts. The charges include mutilating corpses, illegally selling body parts to scientific laboratories, commingling human remains and stealing dental gold from corpses.

Soliciting Charge

David Sconce also faces charges of soliciting the murders of Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter H. Lewis, the prosecutor who was handling the case, and his grandparents, Lawrence and Lucille Lamb. Prosecutors said he wanted to kill his grandparents so that his mother could inherit the business.

The charges stem from the Sconces’ operation of the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena and Coastal International Eye and Tissue Bank, which was based in Santa Fe Springs. A trial is pending in Pasadena Superior Court.

The Sconces have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Waters, a 24-year-old Burbank mortician, died April 8, 1985, of what coroners believed was cardiac arrest due to liver damage.

There was no suspicion of foul play, and the special tests needed to detect a poison were not conducted, Lovell said. But a coroner’s spokesman added that Ventura County saves blood and tissue samples from every autopsy for an indefinite period in case new evidence appears concerning the cause of death.

Two years later, after the Sconces were arrested, the investigation was reopened because of statements from several of David Sconce’s cellmates at Los Angeles County Jail and from two former employees of the Lamb Funeral Home. David Sconce has been held in jail without bail since June, 1987.

Cellmates and former Lamb employees told investigators that Sconce bragged about poisoning Waters to silence his complaints about the Lamb Funeral Home.

Waters owned the Alpha Society, which arranged low-cost cremations.

Suspicion Told

At the Sconces’ preliminary hearing, one witness testified that he told David Sconce that Waters suspected the Lamb Funeral Home of illegally conducting multiple cremations.

Waters was beaten Feb. 12, 1985, by two assailants Sconce is charged with hiring.

Danny Galambos, who has pleaded guilty to taking part in the assault, testified in the preliminary hearing that he was hired by Sconce.

After the eight-month preliminary hearing, which ended in May, the Sconces were ordered to stand trial in Superior Court. The hearing, longest in the history of Pasadena Municipal Court, involved 161 pieces of evidence and 99 witnesses.

According to the testimony of David Edwards, a former Lamb employee, Sconce went to a restaurant where Waters was eating several weeks after the assault and dropped poison into his drink while Waters was away from the table. Edwards said the incident occurred a month before Waters died.

Sconce later told several cellmates at the county jail that he had to poison Waters again.

Suffered Heart Attack

Cellmate David Gearhardt testified in the preliminary hearing that Sconce claimed Waters suffered a heart attack after another dose of poison and said: “I know it’s from the poison I gave him.”

Testimony about Waters’ death was allowed to be presented in the preliminary hearing because of its connection to the assault charges.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. JoAnn Glidden, who is now prosecuting the case, said Sconce may have learned about oleander poison from a book he borrowed from Edwards called “The Poor Man’s James Bond.” The book contains a section detailing how to kill a person with poison.

Edwards testified that Sconce told him he wanted to read the book to find a way to poison his neighbor’s dog. Edwards said the book was never returned.