SACRAMENTO — The guilt phase of the UC Davis “sweethearts” murder case seems likely to conclude this week with defendant Richard Joseph Hirschfield exercising his right to remain silent regarding the 1980 kidnap-murders of John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves.
“He is not going to testify,” defense attorney Linda Parisi told Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet in court Tuesday morning. Hirschfield then murmured something to his lawyer, prompting Parisi to add, “Mr. Hirschfield would prefer to wait till the absolute conclusion to make that decision.”
His wait won’t be long. The defense was slated to wrap up its case this morning, followed by a pair of rebuttal witnesses for the prosecution. Sweet told the jurors they would get the rest of the week off as the attorneys in the case prepare for closing arguments, which likely will start next Tuesday.
If all goes as scheduled, the jury could start deliberating late next Thursday or early Friday, Nov. 1 or 2, Sweet said.
The defense called two brief witnesses Monday in their attempt to show it was another group of suspects, the so-called “Hunt group” prosecuted in Yolo County in the early 1990s, who really committed the murders.
Retired Sacramento County sheriff’s homicide Lt. Ray Biondi, who also testified earlier in the case, recalled a conversation with Richard Thompson in August 1987, about two years before Thompson’s arrest by Yolo authorities. He admitted to Biondi he didn’t deny his involvement in the murders a month earlier when approached by an undercover informant, Ray Gonzales.
“Did he deny the murders to you?” Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet asked during cross-examination.
“Yes. … He was shining (Gonzales) on,” Biondi said. He added that when he and a fellow detective questioned Thompson about the Davis killings, “he didn’t know what case we were talking about.”
The defense also submitted portions of statements from now-dead witnesses in the case, including one involving a possible sighting of Riggins and Gonsalves at what was then the Lucky shopping center on Covell Boulevard the night they were kidnapped. The same person also reported seeing two suspicious-looking men lingering nearby.
Another witness reported seeing Riggins’ van parked on Folsom Boulevard near Hazel Avenue on the afternoon of Dec. 21. Parked close by was a beige car with three people who appeared to be looking at the van, the witness said.
Hirschfield, 63, has pleaded not guilty to the Riggins-Gonsalves murders, which occurred Dec. 20, 1980, after the UCD couple was abducted from Davis. They had just ushered a performance of the “Davis Children’s Nutcracker” and were en route to a surprise party for Gonsalves’ sister Andrea.
Their bodies were found two days later in a ravine off Folsom Boulevard near Aerojet Road. Their throats had been slashed, and authorities say Gonsalves was sexually assaulted.
The alleged rape and multiple murders are among the special circumstances that qualify Hirschfield for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted. If he’s found guilty, the trial proceeds to a penalty phase.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
