Transient admits to stabbing homeless woman during murder trial

A transient who admitted stabbing a homeless woman to death in Palm Springs claimed she was threatening his life, a prosecutor said today, while a defense attorney said her client’s justified concerns for his life, coupled with mental illness and addiction issues, drove him to kill her.

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Verne Raymond Orlop Jr., 54, is charged with first-degree murder and a sentence-enhancing knife-use allegation in the Feb. 21, 2015, death of 48-year-old Denee Salisbury, whose body was found in a lot northwest of East Mesquite Road and South Palm Canyon Drive. She had been stabbed once in the chest and once in the throat.

Deputy District Attorney Jacob Silva told jurors in his opening statement that Orlop called a Palm Springs police dispatcher about two weeks prior to Salisbury’s death and said that if police did not take her off the streets, he would kill her. The defendant later confessed to stabbing her, the prosecutor said.

“This isn’t a whodunit,” Silva told the jury.He called Orlop’s culpability “uncontroverted” and quoted the defendant as telling police: “I stabbed her in the heart to make sure I had the kill. I told (her) to leave my girl alone. You’re dead.”’

According to the prosecutor’s trial brief, Orlop told police that Salisbury had been “getting out of control lately,” and that he killed her to protect his girlfriend, who he claimed Salisbury had threatened. He also allegedly stated he killed Salisbury to prevent her “from killing other transient people in the area,” as well as regularly attacking and robbing him, his girlfriend, and other homeless friends of his.

Following the discovery of her body, police conducted a search of the area and found Orlop nearby with a “small folding knife” in his back pocket, according to the prosecution. Silva said Orlop also had a second knife and a garrote on him.

According to the prosecutor, after an officer briefly mentioned that they were investigating a stabbing, Orlop admitted to killing Salisbury and provided details that only the killer would know, including the number and locations of the stab wounds she suffered.

Orlop’s attorney, Dennette McIntyre, agreed that he killed Salisbury, but said her client had valid reasons to be afraid for his safety, as she’d attacked him and many other transients in the past.

“One person can only take so much and then the threat of violence becomes a very imminent danger,” said McIntyre, who described Orlop’s 911 call as more of a plea for help then a threat toward Salisbury.

She also described Salisbury as “extremely violent” and frequently under the influence. Both attorneys agreed that Salisbury and Orlop each suffered from mental illnesses and addiction.

McIntyre said Orlop had not been taking prescribed medication for his mental issues during the month of Salisbury’s death, because he wanted to be more alert in case she attacked him or his girlfriend in the night, “something she’d done to others in the past.”