Posted on 04/02/2008 12:26:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Judge to rule whether '91 case has enough evidence
As if prosecuting a cold murder case without a body isn't challenging enough, a key witness in the alleged murder of a Los Altos prostitute Tuesday denied previous statements implicating her brother as the killer.
Bernardo Bass, 47, was first charged with Dawn Sanchez's murder in the fall of 1991 but insufficient evidence led to the dismissal of the case the following year. In April 2007, Bass was charged a second time following a joint investigation by the Los Altos police and the Santa Clara County District Attorney's cold case unit.
The preliminary hearing - the crucial step in which a judge determines whether there is sufficient evidence for a defendant to stand trial - got under way Tuesday in Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Edward F. Lee's San Jose courtroom.
Sanchez was 31 when she was last seen leaving a Los Altos motel with Bass in late August 1991. Prosecutors believe that Bass later shot Sanchez in his 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix following an argument. Last year Bass, who remains in custody with no bail, pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
The Pontiac was never found. Nearly 18 years ago Bass' older sister Beatrice Nusser told investigators that she sold the Grand Prix for her brother. In April of last year, Nusser told police she had made up that story out of fear of her sibling.
In 2007, Nusser also sent an anonymous letter to police telling them to look for Sanchez's body behind a creek with cadaver-sniffing dogs, defense attorney Dennis Lempert said Tuesday. FBI agents and other investigators searched Calaveras Creek unsuccessfully for Sanchez's body in August, attorneys said.
"They spent a week searching the area," Lempert said. "All they came up with were broken bottles."
Nusser, who was promised protection from possible perjury charges stemming from her 1991 testimony by Deputy District Attorney James Gibbons-Shapiro, denied Tuesday writing that letter.
"I don't know who wrote the letter," Nusser said after saying she didn't know where Sanchez's body was, and had never met the woman.
Police who searched Bass' home last year with cadaver dogs trained to detect human remains indicated the smell of human remains, Los Altos police Sgt. Scott McCrossin wrote in a declaration in the court file. Los Altos detectives concluded that Bass stored Sanchez's body in his closet until he disposed of it.
When asked if she ever said she feared her brother, Nusser said she could not recall, an answer she frequently provided to questions about events in 1991.
Gibbons-Shapiro declined to comment on Nusser's testimony, but did say his tone in court revealed his thoughts and feelings about the matter.
Dawn Sanchez feared Bass and didn't want to be left alone with him, the missing woman's mother testified Tuesday.
"We knew not to leave her alone with him," Phyllis Sanchez said. "She asked not to be left alone with him" when he followed her to her native Montana.
Through the morning testimony, Phyllis Sanchez painted a picture of a man who followed his daughter to her native Montana without an invitation, a jealous person who slashed the car tires of men who showed interest in Dawn and who broke into her apartment to gain access to her personal address book.
Weeks before her youngest son was to be married in September 1991, Bass allegedly called Phyllis Sanchez from California and told her that Dawn would not be home for the wedding.
"I yelled at him," the elder Sanchez said. "I was really upset about it. ... I knew something was wrong. She never called me again."
The court hearing is scheduled to resume on April 10.
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