Famalaro Quickly Convicted in Huber Sex Murder Case

SANTA ANA — John J. Famalaro was quickly convicted Thursday of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Denise Huber, whose nude and handcuffed body he stored in a freezer for three years, a crime that became one of the most publicized missing person cases in Orange County history.

Famalaro, 39, stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as a court clerk read the verdict it took the jury just five hours to reach. The panel of nine women and three men must next decide whether the former house painter should be executed.

After the jury had left the courtroom, the victim’s parents, who had conducted a three-year effort to find out what happened to their daughter, wept silently for several minutes and hugged each other tightly.

“Justice is finally here,” an emotional 57-year-old Dennis Huber said. “We’ve waited for this day for a long time.”

The Hubers, surrounded by weeping friends and family, said the swiftness of the verdict didn’t surprise them.

“The truth came out,” a relieved Dennis Huber said. “It’s a tremendous help. It’s not going to bring Denise back, it’s not closure.”

“But we’re glad justice has been served,” added Ione Huber, 53.

The couple, married 33 years, attended each day of the trial, sitting in the front row only a short distance from where the defendant was seated. Ione Huber testified on the first day and tried to look at Famalaro, who gazed straight ahead to avoid her stare.

The Hubers said they plan to attend each day of the trial’s penalty phase, which begins next Thursday. Both said the only “justice” would be seeing Famalaro sentenced to death.

“I think the jurors are smart enough to make that decision,” Dennis Huber said.

Denise Huber, 23, disappeared June 3, 1991, after she got a flat tire on the Corona del Mar Freeway while on her way home from a rock concert at the Forum in Inglewood. She was less than three miles from home.

Her frozen body was found in a freezer that had been stored inside a Ryder moving truck parked in the driveway of Famalaro’s home in Dewey, Ariz. A woman buying paint from Famalaro thought the truck’s presence was suspicious and alerted authorities. When investigators discovered the truck was stolen, they looked inside expecting to find drugs.

Instead they discovered Huber’s body.

“This is not a case of great law enforcement cracking a crime,” the prosecutor said during closing arguments said. “It was a fluke. It fell into their hands. He almost got away with it.”

The high-profile nature of the case gave Famalaro’s attorneys great concern about their ability to find a fair jury in Orange County. As a result, Superior Court John J. Ryan ordered a potential jury pool of 1,000 people. A large banner with Denise Huber’s likeness asking “Have you seen Denise Huber?” hung for nearly three years on a building at the spot of the Corona del Mar Freeway where Huber disappeared. Many potential jurors mentioned seeing the banner.

The jury’s verdict was reached swiftly after the panel asked Judge Ryan if they could deliberate into the early evening. The two-week trial itself was an unexpectedly fast one, ending at least two weeks sooner than anticipated.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Evans and Famalaro’s two attorneys declined to comment on the verdict citing the upcoming penalty phase.

Evans had argued forcefully during the trial that Famalaro abducted Huber from the side of the freeway and sodomized her before beating her to death.

In an attempt to save their client’s life, Famalaro’s attorneys conceded their client killed Huber but argued he was not guilty of the special circumstances of kidnapping or sodomy that could earn him the death penalty. They said he picked up Huber intending to seduce her, not kill her.

Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg told the jury this week that Famalaro struck Huber with a hammer in a “spontaneous attack” because Huber was running from him or resisting his overtures.

The defense attorney said Huber died less than an hour after meeting Famalaro and never regained consciousness after he smashed her with the hammer. Gragg said Huber’s other injuries came in a second attack when the defendant decided to kill her.

Gragg and co-defense attorney Leonard Gumlia said Famalaro showed great remorse for the murder and was ill for weeks after committing it.

Prosecutor Evans told a different story. He portrayed Famalaro as a “cold-blooded” killer who sought out his victim and planned to kill her from the beginning. The prosecutor painted a graphic portrait of Huber’s last moments. He said Famalaro took the victim to a Laguna Hills warehouse where he sodomized her then repeatedly crushed her skull with a roofer’s nail puller.

The prosecutor said Famalaro then put three plastic bags over the young woman’s head and pounded her in the head at least 31 times. Evans said the blows were so “fierce and devastating” that parts of the bags were found still embedded in the victim’s skull.

With the murder charge not contested, the allegations of kidnapping and sodomy were the focus of the trial.

Famalaro, who wore a sweater to court each day, did not testify.

Before the jury began deliberating Thursday, Evans spent the morning trying to refute a defense assertion that Huber went willingly with the defendant to the warehouse and he killed her when an attempted seduction turned violent.

The defense had also suggested that Huber’s judgment may have been impaired by alcohol she had consumed the evening of her death and led her to mistakenly trust Famalaro. Her blood-alcohol level was between .08 and .11 when she got the flat tire. State law considers drivers with a .08 reading to be under the influence.

Evans angrily responded to what he considered to be a “thinly veiled” attack on Huber’s judgment the night she was killed.

“Denise Huber, you didn’t make a mistake,” Evans said. “You got murdered. You got kidnapped. You got sodomized. It’s not your fault.”

Famalaro’s attorneys did not explain why he kept Huber’s body inside a locked freezer for three years other than to say he was driven by a “deep compulsion.”

Evans maintained that Famalaro kept the body as a “trophy” and as a way of hiding evidence.

The scenario painted by Famalaro’s attorneys that Huber was neither kidnapped or sexually assaulted before her murder was “wishful thinking,” Evans said.

He also said the defendant showed plenty of premeditation in killing Huber.

“It’s a long time to get to 31,” Evans said of the number of blows to the victim’s head. “It’s a lot of killing.”

* RELIEF FOR HUBERS: Victim’s parents hail “a step in justice,” await sentencing. A24

* VAGARIES OF FATE: Columnist Dana Parsons agonizes over fatal coincidence. B1