Judge to hear arguments for dropping murder charges against one of two men accused in triple murder in Pinyon Pines

A judge is scheduled today to hear arguments to dismiss the case against one of two men accused in a 2006 triple murder in Pinyon Pines.

The attorney for Robert Lars Pape will argue in his dismissal motion that the prosecution’s case is “entirely circumstantial and paper thin, and rests in no small part upon assumptions and suppositions as to means, motive, and opportunity which do not withstand scrutiny when measured against the objective facts.”

Richard Blumenfeld contends that the investigation was “aborted within a year or so of the homicides and shelved until shortly before the grand jury was convened earlier this year, whereupon an indictment was sought against Mr. Pape on the same state of the evidence previously rejected by the district attorney …”

Blumenfeld argues that there is “nothing in the way of forensic or physical evidence directly linking the defendant to the crimes” and that prosecutors didn’t inform the grand jury of exculpatory evidence — evidence that can indicate the defendant’s innocence.

Such evidence included the fact that the cellphone belonging to Jacob Santiago, the boyfriend at the time of victim Becky Friedli, was inactive between 7:45 and 10:14 p.m., like Pape’s and his co-defendant, Cristin Conrad Smith, Blumenfeld argues.

“(Santiago) also failed to tell the police he had a fight with Becky a couple of days before her demise, later claiming he “just forgot to mention (it),” and he lied to them about the time and place he last saw her alive,” Blumenfeld argues.

According to prosecutors and testimony, a cousin and friends of Becky Friedli told investigators that she mentioned plans to go hiking with Smith and Pape.

Blumenfeld argues that the prosecutor who presented the case to the grand jury didn’t tell the panel that Pape told Smith “that there was no way he was going hiking with her.”

Pape, 26, and Smith, 25, were arrested in March and charged with the killings of Vicki Friedli, 53, her boyfriend Jon Hayward, 55, and her 18-year-old daughter, Becky, at their Alpine Drive home. The defendants face three counts of murder, with special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders.

On the night of Sept. 17, 2006, firefighters who responded to a blaze at the victims’ home found Becky Friedli’s burned body in a wheelbarrow about 70 feet from the house. After firefighters doused the blaze, they found the bodies of Hayward and Vicki Friedli inside the house. Both had been shot. The cause of Becky Friedli’s death was never determined.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Stafford will also hear a motion by prosecutors to combine Smith’s and Pape’s cases for trial.

Pape could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted because he was an adult at the time of the killings; prosecutors haven’t announced if they will seek capital punishment. Smith — 17 at the time of the slayings — faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty.

Both Pape and Smith are being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. Smith — whose request to dismiss the charges was denied earlier this year — has motions hearings scheduled Friday.