Pape arraignment delayed until June
The ex-boyfriend of a young woman killed in a 2006 triple murder in Pinyon Pines appeared in court Friday morning, but his arraignment has been delayed until June 13.
Robert Lars Pape was arrested in March along with co-defendant Cristin Conrad Smith, and charged with the Sept. 17, 2006, killings of Vicki Friedli, 53, her boyfriend Jon Hayward, 55, and her 18-year-old daughter Becky, at their Alpine Drive home.
News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 were at the courthouse in Indio.
Riverside Superior Court Judge William Lebov rescheduled so they could be heard by the judge who presided at some of Pape’s previous hearings, and because defense attorney Richard Blumenfeld said he couldn’t proceed to arraignment without a list of items he hasn’t received from the prosecution.
“They’ve had eight years to prepare their case, there is no legitimate reason we shouldn’t have (those items),” Blumenfeld said.
Deputy District Attorney Scot Clark said he just finished another murder trial and can now work on the case full time.
“Mr. Clark says he’s been in trial — that’s no excuse. My client is sitting in custody on an eight-year-old case,” said Blumenfeld, who said he asked for the information a month ago.
Clark said he would get the information to Blumenfeld in a week.
Pape, who turned 26 years old Friday, and 25-year-old Smith, face three counts of murder with special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, and two sentence-enhancing firearm-use allegations.
Pape, an ex-boyfriend of Becky Friedli, could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted because he was an adult at the time of the killings.
Smith faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty. He was 17 at the time of the murders. A judge ruled on March 26 that there was enough evidence for Smith to proceed to trial.
Pape was indicted by a grand jury, so a preliminary hearing wasn’t required in his case.
Firefighters who responded to a blaze at the victims’ home the night of Sept. 17 found Becky Friedli’s 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, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s office.
A cousin and friends of Becky Friedli told investigators that she mentioned plans to go hiking with Smith and Pape.
“Pape later told investigators that he and Smith decided not to go hiking with Becky and instead the two men were only with each other the night of the murders,” District Attorney’s spokesman John Hall said.
Smith also told an investigator that the three had talked about going hiking. After work on Sept. 17, he and Pape decided not to hike with Becky Friedli and watched television and played video games at Smith’s house. He said they took a nap, then decided to play paintball at a local school.
