Man’s retrial in 2008 Palm Springs murder gets underway
A 40-year-old man accused of killing a Palm Springs retiree in 2008 risked everything for a promise of fortune by helping to kill a man who was simply looking for companionship, a prosecutor told jurors today, but a defense attorney insisted that his client was falsely accused and used as a pawn in the deadly scheme.
Miguel Bustamante is charged with one felony count each of murder, conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft over $950, using personal identity info of another to obtain credit, and forged instrument, and three felony counts of burglary, according to court records. He additionally faces a misdemeanor count of unlawfully receiving stolen property.
Bustamante was convicted in 2011 with David Replogle, 74, which resulted in sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, they appealed their verdicts based on appeals successfully lodged by Daniel Carlos Garcia, 40 and Kaushal Niroula, 41, who were convicted in 2012 and sentenced to life terms, but were granted new trials because of the behavior of the judge in the original trial.
Niroula was killed at the Cois Byrd Detention Center on Sept. 6, 2022.
Replogle was convicted again on Aug. 11, 2022, of the same felony charges that Bustamante is charged with, and is set to be sentenced April 25.
Other co-defendants Russell Manning, who is now dead, and Craig McCarthy pleaded guilty in 2010 to felony charges.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Hightower told the jury Tuesday during opening statements that the six defendants allegedly teamed up to take advantage of and kill Clifford Lambert, who was fatally stabbed in the kitchen of his Palm Springs home on Dec. 5, 2008, for financial gain.
"Sometimes the promise of a fortune will make a man risk it all,'' he said.
He told jurors that Lambert was on an online dating site, where he met Garcia, who was living in San Francisco and allegedly utilized the victim's credit card to upgrade his flights when flying out to see him. '
Hightower then took jurors through a timeline of events between November 2008 and January 2009, which he believes is when the actual plan was put into motion up until Bustamante's arrest.
The day after Thanksgiving 2008, Replogle and Niroula flew from Burbank to Palm Springs in an effort to recruit Manning in the Coachella Valley to act as Lambert, Hightower said. On Dec. 2, 2008, in an attempt to get access to Lambert, Niroula allegedly posed as an attorney and called Lambert to tell him that he is inheriting a large amount of money, then set up a meeting with him the following day.
In the meantime, McCarthy and allegedly Bustamante broke into Lambert's home and armed themselves, but didn't follow through with anything so Niroula set up a second meeting at Lambert's Palm Springs home for Dec. 5, 2008. Niroula excused himself and walked to the kitchen, where he allegedly let McCarthy and Bustamante in through the side door.
"Both of them are armed with knives and as they enter the kitchen at some point Mr. Lambert comes out, sort of a `What's going on,' type of moment and Mr. Bustamante stabs Cliff Lambert with the assistance of Craig McCarthy," Hightower alleged. "Once Mr. Lambert is dead, they clean up, they wrap Mr. Lambert up in a rug ... they load Mr. Lambert in the trunk of the Mercedes and they leave with the dog as well."
The following day, the two allegedly dumped Lambert's body along the way to Daly City, which is near San Francisco, Hightower said. After two days, Lambert's friend filed a missing person report, while Niroula and Replogle started to go into Lambert's accounts to try to sell his home.
In 2020, it was confirmed that parts of Lambert's body started to be found in 2016, when pipeline workers found a jawbone along Templin Highway in Castaic, Hightower said. His skull was found near the same area in 2017.
"(Lambert) was a man who was simply seeking out someone for companionship, to care about him and to love him. Instead, what he met was pure evil,'' Hightower said.
Bustamante's defense attorney Bosky Kathuria told jurors Tuesday that Bustamante is not a murderer, but was a hardworking student at the time and was seeking out the American dream after emigrating from Guatemala before he was "duped" by Niroula.
"He was working hard, studying hard, to improve himself to better himself as a student at (Heald) college in San Francisco while also trying to make ends meet while working as a bartender, that's where he had the misfortune of meeting Kaushal Niroula and (that) will be the worst mistake of his life," Kathuria said.
Niroula actively took advantage of Bustamante's vulnerability with gifts and attention before recruiting him to be a "pawn in his game," Kathuria alleged, adding that the defendant was tricked and made to believe that he would play a limited role of retrieving Lambert's items from his home and loading them into a truck.
"I want you all to play close attention to the evidence presented in this case. You will find and the evidence will show that with every incriminating aspect of circumstantial evidence there is a reasonable plausible explanation from that circumstantial evidence that points to this man's innocence," Kathuria said.
