Essay about Case Analysis of Richard Ramirez

The forensic science involved in this case is DNA profiling, fingerprints, shoeprints, ballistics, and dental. DNA profiling was used to identify Richard Ramirez to the murder of 13 people and 42 felony charges. On his first murder in 1984, the police did not know at the time this was a part of his mass murders. It was not until 2009 when the case was reopened with the DNA being extracted from those items and tested. Police went to his jail cell and took Ramirez’s DNA and put it through the CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System. The DNA matched putting him as the culprit of the murder. His fingerprints were found multiple times throughout the case. He was pulled over after one of his kidnappings because he was driving the car that the police were going after. He did not have his driver’s license and overheard the police radio saying the car they were looking for. Ramirez put his signature sign on the car and ran away. The police could have used that to identify him but left the car in the sun and had the fingerprint burned away. After escaping, a man noticed a car driving around suspiciously and took note of the license plate and car description. The police got a call that the car was stolen and found it in a parking lot. Fingerprints were left on the rear-view mirror, and even though they could not use the fingerprint until they caught Ramirez, the fingerprints connected him to older crimes. Shoeprints kept showing up at the crime scenes. They had a unique pattern of a shoe that was not popular at the time. The shoeprint was a size 11 ½ Avia trainer, only one pair had been sold in LA linking it together. Ballistics showed that two different pistols were used in shootings. They used .22 caliber and .25 caliber bullets that were found at multiple crime scenes putting them all together. The Night Stalker was known to have bad teeth from the people that survived his attempts. They noticed that his teeth were rotting and missing some on his upper and lower gum. A dental card was also left in his car from when the police were searching proving that he had just had his teeth checked and had a dental record.

The crimes that led up to the court case started with his first crime in the 1970s. Ramirez would break into hotel rooms and steal from the guest. His first murder victim was a nine-year-old Mei Leung. She was killed in the basement where he was living. She was left stabbed to death and hanging from a pipe. His second victim was a 79-year-old woman, Jennie Vincow, where he left her almost decapitated. His next set of victims Maria Hernandez was shot but survived the bullet while her roommate Dayle Okazaki was killed after being shot in the head. Soon after, He shot Tsai-Lian Yu after pulling her out of her car. The people after were a 64-year man, Charles Zazzara, and his 44-year-old wife, Maxine. Charles was shot in the head while he slept and his wife was stabbed, shot, and had her eyes gouges out and left in a jewelry box. He then attacked Bill and Lillian Doi and stole from their home. After that, he broke into Mabel Bell and Florence Lang’s house. He beat Lang with a hammer and bind her in her bedroom and did the same to Bell. He broke into Carol Kyle’s house with her son there stealing valuables and binding them both while raping Carol. He then went into Mary Cannon’s home knocking her out with a lamp and stabbing her with a knife. Next, he attacked Whitney Bennett, a 16-year-old with a tire iron. He then tried to strangle her with a telephone cord, but it sparks, and she can survive. He robbed Joyce Nelson’s house and beats her to death. Also, on the same night, he goes to Sophie Dickman’s house and handcuffs her at gunpoint, steals her jewelry, and rapes her. He does not kill her though. He proceeds to buy a machete and kills Lela and Maxon Kneiding with it and burglarize their home. Later, he breaks into the Knovanath home shooting Chainarong, beating and raping his wife Somkid, and binding their eight-year-old son to get him to tell where the jewelry is. Chris and Virginia Peterson’s home was broken into with both being shot but they both survived the incident. Sakina and Elyas Abowath’s home were next with him killing Elyas and then handcuffing, beating, and raping Sakina to get their jewelry. The Pan house was next with Peter being shot in the head and Barbara being beaten and raped before he shot her. His last crime was breaking into Bill Carns and Inez Erickson’s home. He shot Bill three times in the head and raped Erickson telling her “Tell them the Night Stalker was here”. He was caught a few weeks later by a bunch of people after they saw his mugshot and one beat him over the head knocking him out till the police could come and detain him. The victims he chose were mostly women with men only being attacked if they got in his way. He would kill the men so he could have the women by himself.

In the case against The Night Stalker stated that there was a lack of physical evidence that he committed the crimes against Mabel Bell, Florence Lang, and Carol Kyle. There was also an alibi that said he was in Texas when the crimes were committed. An AC/DC hat was found at the scene of the Okazaki’s murder and Hernandez was told to pick out the attacker without Ramirez’s picture being shown. The individual was then arrested but then set free. At the Tsai-Lian Yu crime scene, a witness said he never saw The Night Stalker fight Yu, no gunshots, and could not identify the attacker. Photographs from the scene of the crime were not good enough for facial recognition and the way she was found had her shot in her vehicle. During his Doi attack, Launie Dempster had seen Ramirez in his car before the murder but was unable to see the face through the car’s roof. Ramirez’s father said that we in Texas during the Bell attacking and a hair found the scene of the crime did not match his. A blood sample found at the Cannon scene was different than his blood type. When Sophie Dickman was shown the same line of people as Hernandez, she chose the same person who was let go earlier. The hair found at the crime scene of Maxon and Lela Kneiding was different than the Night Stalkers. Semen found from the Sakina Abowath crime was unable to confirm that the matched Ramirez. Deputy Public Defender Judith Crawford saw two police officers talking with two children before they went to the lineup to identify the assailant. The police officers were raising two fingers and Ramirez was the second one in line. A photograph was taken of them doing this multiple times. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, an expert in eyewitness identification stated that when people are hit with a weapon, they are more focused on the weapon instead of the person using it. It would be hard for the individual to identify what the assailant looked like. Sandra Hotchkiss, a burglar said that she and Ramirez had done robberies together and that he never carried a gun or ever acted violently. During the hearing, it moved along smoothly except with arguments occurring between the attorneys. Also, a bailiff hit Ramirez because of the way he was looking at a witness. As they were showing the images of the crime and the witness describing what they saw, the Night Stalker would grin and stare eerily. He showed a big grin when they discovered what he had done to Maxine Zazzara. The trial took four years to conclude because there were over 1,600 jurors and 100 witnesses testifying against Ramirez. Also, during the trial, a juror didn’t show up and they found her murdered in her apartment later that day. It was not related to Ramirez, but it did slow down the process to come up with a conviction.

The court ruled that the Night Stalker was charged with 12 counts of 1st-degree murder, 1 count of 2nd-degree murder, 5 counts of attempted murder, 4 counts of rape, 3 counts of forcible oral copulation, 4 counts of forcible sodomy, and 14 counts of 1st-degree burglary. The court said that 12 convictions of 1st-degree murder would serve 59 years and 4 months on 11 of his noncapital crimes. They also said that he would receive the death penalty either lethal injection or through the gas chamber. Ramirez also wanted the court to move his trial to a different area because he thought it would be biased against because everyone in the area had seen his face on the news and wanted photos. He thought they would all go against him. After he was told about his death sentence, Ramirez was quoted as saying “Big deal. Death always went with the territory See you in Disneyland”.

This case has been influenced today by having forensic technology set up in every state and every police station. When Ramirez tried to steal someone’s car, his fingerprints were left on the vehicle. The police took those fingerprints and compared them to the other crime scenes and found they were a match. In California, they had an automated fingerprint index system, that other states did not have at the time. This case proved that all states need fingerprint systems so they can easily determine if multiple crimes have been done by the same person or comparing other fingerprints from multiple crime scenes. Also at that time, task forces would retain information from others so they could be the to say they solved the crime. From the rate the Night Stalker was committing his crimes, multiple units began to work together, and this made it easier to share information and solve the crime.