Closing arguments in financial killing case

Two Northern California men charged with murder, conspiracy and other counts stemming from the financially motivated slaying of a Palm Springs retiree are “sociopathic con artists” trying to pull one more
scam — this time on jurors, a prosecutor said today.

Kaushal Niroula, 31, and Daniel Carlos Garcia, 30, are charged with 10
felony counts in the Dec. 5, 2008, stabbing death of 74-year-old Clifford
Lambert.

Both men are representing themselves. Niroula, who started his testimony
last Thursday, rested his case today, and Garcia finished presenting his case
about two weeks ago.

“These two defendants conspired to kill Mr. Lambert and their goal was
to get his estate, his money, to get everything he owned,” Deputy District
Attorney Lisa DiMaria told jurors in her closing argument this afternoon.

“The other scam you have witnessed was in this courtroom on you,
members of the jury … This time, their goal is freedom,” the prosecutor
said.

She said Lambert, whose body was never found, “is dead because he was
unknowing, he was naive, and he was lonely and he was vulnerable.”

“Members of the jury, you are not unknowing, naive, lonely and
vulnerable. Your eyes have been wide open,” DiMaria said.

She said that although Niroula acted in the courtroom as though he hated
Garcia — he refused to answer Garcia’s questions during cross-examination
and told the judge that Garcia had ruined his life — Niroula filled two holes
in Garcia’s testimony, which rested on assertions that Garcia invented a
technology that Niroula and his former lover wanted to sell, and that Niroula’s former lover planted thousands of text messages.

“I submit (Niroula’s) testimony was an attempt to salvage the only person they (the defendants) think has a chance in this case (of being
acquitted),” DiMaria said, referring to Garcia.

She said Niroula’s statement during testimony that “I don’t care if Mr.
Lambert died on Dec. 5″ were the “words of a cold-blooded, sociopathic
killer, whether the knife was wielded by his own hand or by another.”

Records of financial transactions involving Lambert’s credit card and
debit accounts were markedly different before and after he went missing.
Lambert was an intelligent man who checked his finances daily, and he would have gone to police if he thought something was amiss, DiMaria said.

“He would have to be eliminated to achieve (the defendants’) goal,”
she told the jury.

Niroula and Garcia are the last of six defendants to be prosecuted in
the case.

San Francisco attorney David Replogle and another man, Miguel
Bustamante, were convicted in January 2011 of first-degree murder and eight other felony counts stemming from Lambert’s death, and both were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bustamante’s roommate, Craig McCarthy, pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter in August 2010 and is scheduled to be sentenced in October. San Francisco art dealer Russell Manning pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges in the case in 2010 and was sentenced to five years in prison.

DiMaria said Garcia met Lambert online the spring before he died, and
Lambert — a gay man who preferred younger men — paid for Garcia to travel from Northern California to see him.

Garcia’s visit didn’t go well and he left earlier than planned, charging
Lambert’s credit card when he upgraded his plane ticket to first class, the
prosecutor said in her opening statement.

Text messages from Garcia’s phone showed he had contact information for
Replogle, who had represented him at one point and became a friend, and
Bustamante, a student and bartender in the Bay Area. Bustamante’s roommate was also dragged into the conspiracy, DiMaria said.

She said Garcia sent Lambert’s address and phone number to Niroula, and
on Dec. 1, Replogle and Niroula flew to Burbank and drove to Palm Springs. The next day, Niroula posed as an attorney representing a wealthy New York family that had left Lambert money or valuable artwork in a will, the prosecutor said.

On Dec. 5, Niroula was at Lambert’s home, and at some point let McCarthy
and Bustamante into the house, the prosecutor said. McCarthy grabbed Lambert and held him at knifepoint in the kitchen, and Bustamante stabbed Lambert to death, DiMaria told jurors.

She said Niroula brought bedding into the kitchen so they could wrap up
the body, while Bustamante and McCarthy cleaned the blood.

They put Lambert’s body into the trunk of his own Mercedes-Benz, and
Bustamante and McCarthy buried Lambert in the desert the next day, according to the prosecutor. They drove the car up to the Bay Area, and Garcia started using Lambert’s debit card to withdraw money the same day, she alleged.

On Dec. 10, Niroula allegedly opened a Wells Fargo account with
Replogle’s information. The next day, Replogle, posing as Lambert, gave art
dealer Manning power of attorney over Lambert’s accounts, and Manning —
accompanied by Niroula — wired $185,000 from Lambert’s Palm Springs bank
account to the newly opened Wells Fargo account, according to the prosecution.

On Dec. 12, Replogle — again posing as Lambert and accompanied by
Niroula — met with a notary and forged four power of attorney documents,
including a durable power of attorney that gave Manning power of attorney over Lambert’s entire estate, DiMaria alleged. The same day, Niroula transferred $30,000 into Bustamante’s account and Manning wrote a check to Replogle for more than $15,000, closing out Lambert’s account, she said.

Niroula said in his opening statement that there was no evidence linking
him to the killing and insisted the prosecution’s case was based on excuses
and “fabricated” text messages.

He said Department of Justice personnel never found any forensic
evidence after sweeping Lambert’s home “floor to ceiling,” and the house was later “gutted” and sold. There also was no evidence found in Lambert’s
Mercedes — the car was put into a police impound lot in the Bay Area and later sold, Niroula said.

Garcia told jurors in his opening statement that, contrary to the
prosecution’s claims, “nothing in my life was motivated by greed.” He said he
was with his family in Northern California when Lambert disappeared, “not in Palm Springs participating in a conspiracy.” He said he and Replogle started a business venture to sell rare, multimillion-dollar paintings.

“Why would anyone commit such a heinous crime for such a relatively
small amount?” he said.

Several people had access to his passwords and email accounts, Garcia said.

“That also means other people were able to gain access and change
things and manipulate them,” he said.