Riggins, Gonsalves families push for January trial in 1980 murder case
SACRAMENTO — Dick and Kate Riggins made the five-hour drive from Shell Beach to Sacramento on Friday to attend the latest of more than 100 court appearances for their son’s alleged killer.
The word was out that the attorneys for Richard Hirschfield — accused of slaying UC Davis sweethearts John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves in December 1980 — were seeking yet another continuance of Hirschfield’s trial, which is scheduled to begin in late January.
Indeed, a continuance request was one of roughly 70 pretrial motions filed this week by defense attorneys Linda Parisi and Kenneth Schaller. It lists 22 reasons for seeking a trial postponement, including requests for extra time to review the estimated 220,000 pages of discovery, 2,000 photographs, 300 tape recordings and 76 boxes of evidence that comprise the potential death-penalty case.
“It would be a cheap subterfuge of and a senseless mockery upon justice for the state to put a man on trial in its courts; charged with an offense which involved his life, liberty or character; and then place him in such a position that he could not prepare to make his defense,” says the motion, which seeks to push the trial back to next April or May.
But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael W. Sweet, who is presiding over the case, seemed reluctant to delay the proceedings any longer.
The case has been pending since June 2004, when authorities announced Hirschfield’s arrest after allegedly linking him by DNA to the double homicide. Hirschfield, 62, was ordered to stand trial in 2007 following a preliminary hearing.
Sweet noted that out of the 485 potential witnesses in the case, “about 25 of them have already passed on.”
“I realize the time sensitivity … and my goal is to press on and get this thing going,” Sweet said.
The judge then invited the Rigginses, as well as Gonsalves’ aunt Ginger Swigart, to address the court. Looking on from the spectators’ gallery were about 10 longtime friends from Davis who have been present at nearly every one of Hirschfield’s court appearances.
“As we are getting older, this is something that is in our life every day,” Kate Riggins said. “We feel very strongly that we need to keep to the (trial) date and at least get things under way so that justice can be done.”
“It’s time to move on,” Swigart added.
The case is due back in court Dec. 2 for argument and ruling on the slew of pretrial motions. A week later, the defense is expected to present witnesses in support of a change of venue for the trial.
Parisi and Schaller also are seeking to sequester the jury for the duration of the trial, which by some estimates could last up to a year.
Hirschfield has pleaded not guilty.
Riggins and Gonsalves, both 18, were abducted from Davis on the night of Dec. 20, 1980, shortly after ushering at a performance of the “Davis Children’s Nutcracker.” Their bodies, their throats slashed, were discovered two days later in a Folsom-area ravine in Sacramento County.
The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office took control of the case in the late 1980s, prosecuting a foursome known as the “Hunt group.” Their theory was that David Hunt, the half-brother of serial killer Gerald Gallego, orchestrated the abductions and killings while Gallego was in custody for a similar crime in Sacramento to make authorities believe the real suspect was still at large.
That case collapsed, however, when DNA testing performed on the eve of the Hunt group’s 1993 trial eliminated all three of the male defendants, as well as Riggins.
However, Hirschfield’s defense attorneys is poised to argue that the Hunt group was somehow involved, judging from the titles of several of their motions. Prosecutor Dawn Bladet has countered with a motion to exclude the defense’s introduction of “third party culpability.”
The two sides also are expected to battle over whether Hirschfield’s criminal history, including his conviction for a 1975 home-invasion robbery and rape in Mountain View, should be introduced at trial.
Hirschfield was serving a 16-year prison sentence for child rape and molestation in Washington when a “cold hit” DNA match in September 2002 identified him as the alleged source of a semen stain found on a blanket in Riggins’ van.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=87370
Posted by Lauren Keene
on Sep 30 2011.
Last Login: Mon 21 May 2012 04:26:23 PM PDT
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These trial delays are absurd. Even if convicted this suspect will die on death row while his appeals run. If this “man” is guilty; maybe Gods justice or jailhouse justice will intervene and bring the families some solace after 31 years.
This is ridiculous.
Honestly, over 100 trial appearances? How can his lawyer live with herself. I’d be full of guilt and shame to make my living keeping scum like Hirschfield alive.