Two Accused Of Killing Palm Springs Retiree Head To Trial

Two men accused of being part of a conspiracy to kill a Palm Springs retiree for his money had their motions to dismiss the case because of alleged improper conduct by prosecutors denied Thursday by a judge.

Daniel Garcia, 28, and Kaushal Niroula, 29, who are representing themselves, are being prosecuted for first-degree murder and conspiracy, among other charges, in the financially motivated murder of Palm Springs retiree Clifford Lambert.

The other four defendants in the case have been convicted or pleaded guilty, but Garcia and Niroula’s trial has been crawling along because of pretrial motions.

In seeking to have charges dismissed, they claimed that Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria and her investigators listened to privileged jailhouse phone calls.

They wanted to have the District Attorney’s Office recused from the case or have it thrown out entirely, but Superior Court Judge David B. Downing rejected their assertions.

“The D.A. did nothing wrong, not even close,” Downing said. “In fact, they did everything right.”

Their primary claim for months has been that the District Attorney’s Office improperly accessed privileged phone calls and mailings.

Last week, Downing ruled that any mail read by prosecutors was not privileged information, and today he said there was no misconduct when prosecutors listened to recordings of phone calls made by Garcia.

Roles were reversed Thursday, with DiMaria taking the stand as one of the witnesses to be questioned by the defendants she will try to convict this fall.

The two will next appear in court March 4 for another pretrial hearing, and it’s possible they will try to file other motions to dismiss the case or throw out evidence.

Last week, Downing forced the two to pick a trial start date of Sept. 6, having grown impatient with their pleas for extensions to prepare for trial.

He has already approved a county-provided laptop for the two, who have said the facilities at the Indio jail do not allow them to adequately prepare their defense.

The laptop is part of the $135,000 the county has spent related to Garcia’s defense, according to court records.

David Replogle and Miguel Bustamante were convicted of nine felonies relating to Lambert’s death, including first-degree murder, and are scheduled to be sentenced March 4.

Craig McCarthy pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in August and a sixth defendant, Russell Herbert Manning, pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Palm Springs police Detective Frank Browning testified at a preliminary hearing that McCarthy told him the initial plan was to kidnap Lambert and steal his identity to clean out his accounts, but that the plan hit a snag when concerns arose that the 74-year-old retiree could reemerge and contest forged power-of-attorney documents, which Bustamante — a San Francisco lawyer — would write.

The group then allegedly killed Lambert during a staged break-in on Dec. 5, 2008, with Bustamante stabbing him in the back of the neck as McCarthy and Niroula stood by his side, Browning said. Lambert’s body has never been found, but the trio are believed to have buried it in the desert.

The prosecution said Lambert was targeted because he was lonely, liked to meet people over the Internet and had an interest in younger men, making him vulnerable.