THE NIGHT STALKER VERDICTS : Killer’s Chair Is Empty in Solemn Courtroom

For six months in 1985, Richard Ramirez was an elusive source of terror, stalking random victims under cover of darkness. On Wednesday afternoon, as a jury prepared to declare him guilty of 13 murders and 30 related felonies, Ramirez again managed to vanish from view.

At his request, Ramirez was escorted by seven deputies to a courtroom holding cell where, alone, he would listen to the verdicts via a sound system. His foot chains jangled as he was led away.

So there was an empty yellow chair at the defense table as the verdicts came in. It was one of the few unoccupied seats in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan, who has presided over the Night Stalker trial for six months.

Courtroom Is Filled

The courtroom on this day was filled with seven relatives of Ramirez’s victims and more than 70 reporters, court watchers, detectives and district attorney’s personnel.

It took more than 30 minutes for all of the verdicts to be read. After completing the first 10, Tynan’s shaky-voiced clerk, Josephine Williams, asked to be relieved of the task. Tynan continued himself.

During the reading, the 12 jurors and seven alternates stared solemnly ahead. Deputy Dist. Atty. Phil Halpin jotted notes on a legal pad. Defense attorney Daniel Hernandez stared at the judge as he repeated the words.

For each count, the same conclusion was read: “We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Richard Ramirez guilty.”

The dry legalese seemed in jarring contrast to the horror of the acts they ascribed to Ramirez, count by count.

Among those present was Judith Arnold. One July day in 1985, she had discovered the bodies of her parents, Maxon and and Lela Kneiding, in their Glendale home. They had failed to show up in church. Both had been shot in the head and their throats were slashed.

“I’m here to see justice done. It’s been too long,” Arnold had said minutes before the jurors filed into the 11th-floor courtroom of the downtown Criminal Courthouse.

Arnold, her husband Bill’s arm around her shoulder, sat flush-faced as the verdicts were read. When Tynan came to the Kneidings’ names, counts 28 through 30, Arnold gripped her husband’s right hand tightly and shut her eyes.

“Guilty,” said the judge evenly.

Arnold breathed deeply, opened her eyes, and daubed at her tears with a tissue.

A little later, Arnold said she felt “somewhat” relieved. She said she would reserve further comment until after the penalty phase of the trial, in which Ramirez could be sentenced to death.

Also present were the son and two grandchildren of Joyce Nelson, a 61-year-old Monterey Park resident bludgeoned to death in July, 1985.

Too Sick to Watch

Before the verdict in the Nelson murder was announced, her granddaughter hurriedly left the courtroom. She whispered to her father that she was too sick to watch.

Besides Ramirez, other regulars at his trial were missing at the end Wednesday. About 10 women of all ages had appeared faithfully as Ramirez’s case slowly wound its way through the preliminary hearing phase and into trial.

The women never fully explained the attraction Ramirez held for them, although some said they were convinced of his innocence and a few described him as attractive. In any case, none showed up for the verdict.