Preliminary hearing continues for Pinyon Pines murder suspects
Robert Pape and Cristin Smith were both in court for their preliminary hearing in Riverside, which began Monday morning and continued on Tuesday. Investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department testified about foot prints and wheelbarrow tire marks found in the desert close to the Friedli’s home.
The two men are accused of killing 53-year-old Vicki Friedli, her boyfriend, 55-year-old Jon Hayward, and her 18-year-old daughter, Becky Friedl, at their home in the 68000 block of Alpine Drive, a remote area just south of Palm Springs, on Sept. 17, 2006.
KESQ and CBS Local 2’s Joe Galli has been at the courthouse to hear witness testimony.
Testimony also revealed how people very close to Becky Fridli told investigators she had received a phone call from Pape a few days before the murders. Prior to that – Friedli had not had any contact with Pape for eight months.
A confidential informant who allegedly overhead Smith talking about starting the fire was scheduled to take the stand on Tuesday, but has been postponed until Thursday so the defense can have more time to prepare for cross examination.
The judge is planning to unseal precious proceedings involving Cristin Smith. The judge believes these were sealed at the time because Smith was a juvenile. Attorneys will have a chance to look over the files before they are officially unsealed to give them an opportunity to object if necessary.
Pape and Smith will be back in court on Thursday.
Preliminary Hearing begins for Robert Pape & Cristin Smith 10/24/16
Several people took to the stand on Monday, many of whom were first on the scene when the home was ablaze, including a neighbor of the Friedli’s, who was the first to discover their house on fire and Becky Friedli’s charred remains in the wheelbarrow. Both the defense and the prosecution believe the preliminary hearing could take two or three days before wrapping up and having a judge decide if the case will go to trial.
Other people who took the stand on Monday included members of the Riverside County Fire Department, the Riverside County Sheriffs Department and investigators.
On Tuesday, a confidential informant is expected to testify to overhearing Smith having a conversation where Smith claimed he set the fire.
This is the second time the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against Pape and Smith, but in 2014 the DAs office shelved the cases until re-arresting the defendants in the summer of 2016.
KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 will continue to bring you updates as the preliminary hearing continues this week.
Suspects both pleaded not guilty in July
Both suspects accused in the Pinyon Pines triple murder from 2006 are back in custody in Riverside County, for the second time.
Robert Pape and Cristin Smith, the men accused of a triple murder in Pinyon Pines from 2006, were finally arraigned Tuesday morning following multiple postponements.
Both men pleaded not guilty, and Pape hired a private attorney named James Silva.
Robert Lars Pape, 28, of Cathedral City, and Cristin Conrad Smith, 27, of Olympia, Washington, each face three counts of first-degree murder, with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. They are scheduled to return to the Larson Justice Center in Indio on Friday for a felony settlement conference.
Pape and Smith are accused of killing 53-year-old Vicki Friedli, her boyfriend, 55-year-old Jon Hayward, and her 18-year-old daughter, Becky Friedl, at their home in the 68000 block of Alpine Drive, a remote area just south of Palm Springs, on Sept. 17, 2006.
Pape and Smith were previously charged with the killings, but charges were dropped in 2014 after problems arose during grand jury proceedings.
Pape was re-arrested on June 10 during a traffic stop in Cathedral City, while Smith, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was arrested in Sacramento and transferred to Riverside County a week later.
7/11: The arraignment of Robert Pape and Cristin Smith, was once again delayed on Monday.
Pape’s attorney last week removed himself from the case, and the Public Defender’s office had still not assigned a lawyer until Monday’s hearing, in which they asked to delay the arraignment to have more time to look over the case.
Attorney John Patrick Dolan was looking to get his own hearing for his client, Smith. He’s trying to get him released from custody, but the judge denied the request. Both parties have been ordered to return to Larson Justice Center on July 19th for the official arraignment.
June 21: Arraignment postponed for Robert Pape and Cristin Smith
Two men accused in a 2006 triple homicide in Pinyon Pines were scheduled to be arraigned in Indio on Tuesday, one week after their arraignment was postponed, only for it to be postponed yet again.
Robert Lars Pape, 28, of Cathedral City, and Cristin Conrad Smith, 27, of Lacey, Washington, are charged with three counts of first-degree murder each with special circumstance allegations of multiple murders.
Both men are now scheduled for arraignment on July 5 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
Both suspects back in custody
Robert Pape was arrested on Friday, June 10 and is in custody at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning. His co-defendant Cristin Smith was transported to Riverside County on Monday, June 20 from Sacramento, and he’s being held at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.
Both suspects are scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio. KESQ and CBS Local 2 will keep you updated as court proceedings begin.
DA outlines new charges in Pinyon Pines triple murder investigation 6-15-16)
We’re learning new details about what led District Attorney Mike Hestrin to refile charges against the two suspects in the 2006 Pinyon Pines triple murder: Robert Pape and Cristin Smith.
KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 were at the Larson Justice Center in Indio Tuesday afternoon when Robert Pape’s attorney requested a continuance, which the judge granted for June 21.
Meanwhile, Cristin Smith is behind bars in Sacramento while he awaits transfer to Riverside County.
In a declaration in support of the arrest warrant for Pape, District Attorney Investigator Lester Harvey outlined new evidence uncovered by the DA’s office after the charges were dropped back in October 2014.
Here are some bullet points from the DA’s office highlighting the newley discovered evidence from the investigation:
DNA, retested and returned as 1:28 trillion match to Cristin Smith on a key piece of evidence at the murder scene Jail calls found where Pape and Sara Honiker (pape’s girlfriend at the time) discussed the concealment of unregistered firearms Forensic cell tower analysis positively placing Smith and Pape traveling together southbound on Monterrey Ave, toward Pinyon Pines before the murders Forensic fire examination narrowed the fire start/extinguish timeframe positively excluding potential competing suspects Identification of a 2011 anonymous caller – now a confidential informant
According to the DA’s office, the caller said they overheard a conversation in late 2007 between persons close to Smith, wherein details of the search warrants and investigation were disclosed. The caller said he/she was confronted after hearing the details and was told not to talk about it. The caller refused to provide any contact information, citing he/she feared for his/her safety.
Investigators said the caller was located by investigators and was identified by sheriff investigators in May of 2016. During that interview, the informant claims that Smith made statements in 2007 suggesting that he was responsible for setting the fire. After police had raided Smith’s residence, the informant described Smith’s demeanor as distant and distracted. Smith also allegedly told the informant, “something went wrong and we torched the whole ‘f***in’ place.”
We’ll have updates from Tuesday’s arraignment at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p .m.
Friday, June 10: Charges filed again in Pinyon Pines triple murder case
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin laid out a new mission Friday, standing with investigators and family members related to victims in the Pinyon Pines triple homicide.
A case that’s turned a new page, with new charges filed.
“What I thought was going to be a few months of a review turned into almost a year and a half,” Hestrin said.
Hestrin announced the charges filed against Robert Pape and Cristin Smith.
This comes two years after the original charges were dropped, and almost a decade since they found the bodies of a woman and her boyfriend dead inside their home, and her daughter burned in a wheelbarrow.
“The three victims in this crime were Jon Hayward, Vicki Friedli and Rebecca Friedli, also known as Becky,” Hestrin said. “They’re not simply victims, but mother, father, sister, family, and loved ones.”
Hestrin said after a 16-month long joint investigation with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, a mix of old and new evidence is what brought on the new charges.
“We were not aware of it before this new investigation,” Hestrin said. “So in the old case, we didn’t have it. And the second is evidence that we had, but now we have further analyzed. We’ve used cutting edge technology to understand better what the evidence means.”
And now, prosecutors said they plan to hopefully go all the way, making sure justice is served.
“I apologized for the mishandling of this case, and I apologized to them for the added anguish and pain that must have caused them,” Hestrin said. “But all we can do going forward is that I promise to do seek justice and get justice for this case and for the family.”
Authorities arrested Pape Friday morning at the Stater Brothers parking lot in Cathedral City, while Smith was arrested later that afternoon in Sacramento.
Both men are expected to be arraigned in court soon.
While prosecutors said Pape is eligible for the death penalty, Smith will not be eligible because he was a juvenile at the time of the murders. Instead, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 have confirmed that new charges have been filed against the two suspects accused in the triple murder case in Pinyon Pines from September 17, 2006.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin held a news conference Friday at 3 p.m. and said the investigation has turned up new evidence. Hestrin said both Robert Pape and Cristin Smith are facing multiple counts of murder, including three counts for each victim, and one count for special circumstances.
Robert Pape was arrested Friday at 7 a.m. in Cathedral City near Vista Chino and Landau Boulevard. He was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside at 12:30 p.m.
Cristin Smith was arrested Friday afternoon in Sacramento, at the same time the news conference was taking place in Riverside.
“This case was mishandled. We will seek justice for this case and for the family,” Hestrin said at Friday’s news conference.
Charges were dropped against both suspects in October of 2014.
Pape and Smith are charged for the murders of 18 year old Becky Friedli, her mother Vickie Friedli and her mother’s boyfriend Jon Hayward.
On the evening of September 17, 2006, a fire was reported at the Friedli home on Alpine Drive in Pinyon Pines where the three victims lived. Firefighters found Becky Friedli’s body burning outside in a wheelbarrow about 70 feet from the home, which was also in flames. After putting out the fire, they found the bodies of Jon and Vicki inside the home. They had both been shot.
After the charges were dropped in 2014, the district attorney’s office said it would continue to investigate the Pinyon Pines triple murder case and pursue charges.
Officials sent out a release Friday afternoon detailing the news conference. Officials wrote, after taking office in January 2015, DA Hestrin said he would review this triple-murder case with a
“fresh set of eyes.” Soon after that, a new investigation began into the murders and after 16 months
of exhaustive work by DA’s and Riverside County sheriff’s investigators, charges have been filed
again against Pape and Smith. The lengthy investigation led to the finding of new evidence, some of
which was not known at the time of the first investigation, as well as evidence that has now been
processed using technological advances unavailable previously.
The DA’s office said the special circumstance allegation makes Pape eligible for the death penalty. DA Hestrin will make a decision whether to seek death at a later time. Smith was a juvenile at the time of
the crimes so he is not eligible for the death penalty, but faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Three people lost their lives to violence,” DA Hestrin said. “They are not simply victims, but
mother, father, sister, family, and loved ones. The tremendous loss of three innocent people is what
drove me, this office, the sheriff, and all the investigators to continue to search for the truth.”
Pape is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday but there was no courtroom information available Friday afternoon. We’re also waiting to hear information regarding Smith’s court appearance.
Court Report & Background of Pinyon Pines triple murder
At least one of the suspects in a 2006 triple homicide in Pinyon Pines was facing new murder charges Friday, two years after prosecutors dropped the case against him and another man.
According to court records, Robert Lars Pape, 28, was charged Wednesday with three counts of murder in connection with the killings. Prosecutors had no immediate comment, but Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference to discuss the case.
Pape and co-defendant Cristin Conrad Smith — who was a U.S. Army Ranger– were originally arrested and charged in 2014 in connection 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.
Pape and Smith were each charged with three counts of murder with special circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, but the charges were dismissed months later at the prosecution’s request.
Court records did not immediately show any new charges filed against Smith.
On the night of Sept. 17, 2006, firefighters responding 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 her mother and Hayward in the house. Both had been shot. The cause of Becky
Friedli’s death could not be determined due to the extent her body had been burned.
According to prosecutors, Becky Friedli told friends and a cousin of possible plans to go hiking with Pape and Smith early that evening. The two men allegedly told investigators they’d spent time with each other that evening.
Their phones were switched off sometime between 7 and 11 p.m. the night of the killings, and a mix of DNA to which Smith contributed was found on a business card found near what investigators believed was the starting point of a trail left by the wheelbarrow containing Becky Friedli’s body.
Pape and Smith were arrested in 2014 and the case was proceeding towards trial when the office of then District Attorney Paul Zellerbach filed a motion to drop the charges against the men.
Zellerbach issued a statement calling the dismissals appropriate in light of “legal issues that arose” during grand jury proceedings against Pape, adding “it would not be appropriate to continue the criminal proceedings solely against defendant Smith.”
“The D.A.’s Office is committed to continuing its investigation into these murders and believes and expects that murder charges will be refiled in the near future,” the statement read.
Leading up the dismissal, both Pape’s and Smith’s attorneys attacked the prosecution’s case at hearings and in motions, arguing that it was based on circumstantial and inadmissible evidence and that their clients had been denied due process and the right to a fair trial.
Pape and Smith were released in October 2014 from the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, where they had been held in custody for six months.
