Witness Points Out 31 Blows to Huber’s Skull

SANTA ANA — As a medical examiner described the condition of murder victim Denise Huber’s shattered skull in court Tuesday, John J. Famalaro--the man accused of inflicting at least 31 blows upon Huber--blinked his eyes rapidly and appeared to be fighting back tears.

Sitting only a few feet away, Huber’s 57-year-old father listened to the gruesome details and stared at Famalaro.

“I wanted to see if it hurt him to hear that,” Dennis Huber said later. “You wouldn’t do that to a dog. It was so terrible.”

Famalaro, 39, is on trial for allegedly killing the 23-year-old Huber and storing her body in a freezer for three years while her parents conducted a highly publicized, desperate search for her.

The former Lake Forest man is also charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting Huber, two special circumstance allegations that could bring the death penalty if he is convicted.

Law enforcement officers found the freezer with Huber’s body inside a stolen Ryder rental truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s Arizona home.

Much of the testimony during the third day of Famalaro’s trial centered on forensic evidence the prosecution says proves that Huber was sexually assaulted.

Lisa Arnell, a forensic scientist with the Orange County sheriff’s crime lab, testified that she detected two sperm specimens found in Huber’s body, and Edwin Jones, a senior criminalist with the Ventura County sheriff’s crime lab, testified that he detected seven.

But Famalaro’s attorneys contend there is no proof that their client sodomized Huber and disputed the forensic evidence. Deputy Public Defender Leonard Gumlia tried to undermine the credibility of Arnell during cross-examination.

“Do you feel any particular pressure in this case to come up with that [positive] result?” Gumlia asked Arnell.

Ann Bucholtz, medical examiner for Arizona’s Maricopa County, near Phoenix, testified how Huber’s handcuffed body was “frozen solid” and how a hair dryer was used in an attempt to thaw it for testing.

Pointing to four separate drawings of Huber’s head, Bucholtz indicated at least 31 injuries that appeared to have been inflicted by a roofer’s nail puller.

She said Huber’s shattered skull was meticulously put back together by anthropologists in an effort to determine where the blows were and what type of instrument caused them.

The prosecution is expected to finish presenting its case today and Famalaro’s attorneys will begin calling their witnesses Thursday morning. The trial has moved along rapidly and is at least a week ahead of schedule.