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A lawyer's body refrigerated after murder.
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benn



Joined: 19 Sep 2002
Posts: 2136
Location: Sacramento, CA

PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2002 1:20 pm    Post subject: A lawyer's body refrigerated after murder. Reply with quote

Posted: 2002-06-25 01:53

Well, I have something to report here. This is not about Chandra or the Chandra investigation, it is about an ongoing Sacramento murder trial; but the interesting part for people on the board here is what was done with the body, according to the prosecution.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/mcnabney/

A local murder mystery
[The McNabneys] On March 1, 2002, Elisa McNabney, seen at right, was charged with the murder of her husband, Sacramento lawyer Larry Williams McNabney.

According to San Joaquin County detectives, the 53-year-old Larry McNabney, shown in the photo at far right, was killed with a lethal dose of horse tranquilizer sometime after Sept. 10, 2001, when he was last seen at a horse show. An employee reported him missing on Nov. 30, 2001. And his wife was last seen driving away from their Woodbridge home, north of Lodi, in a red convertible Jaguar XK8 in January 2002.

Detectives say they believe McNabney's body was stuffed into a refrigerator for several months, and then, sometime in December 2001 or January 2002, he was buried in a grave in a San Joaquin County vineyard about 15 miles from the couple's home. His remains were discovered in the vineyard on Feb. 5, 2002.

A nationwide hunt for Mrs. McNabney, who say may have used several different aliases, was ordered on March 4, 2002 when the FBI issued a federal warrant for her arrest, charging her with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

END OF QUOTE

Mrs. McNabney later committed suicide, but the murder trial being held now is for a woman accomplice of Mrs. NcNabney who is still alive. This will probably be ongoing for a while, but the thing I was interested in was the method of disposing of the body of the murdered attorney.

benn (I will look for some followups on this.)
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/mcnabney/

Elisa McNabney is found to be Laren Renee Sims.

Fugitive wife hid criminal history
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 5:30 a.m. PST Friday, March 15, 2002
The fugitive and ex-convict wanted on charges she murdered the Sacramento lawyer she was married to for six years hid a criminal past that stretched from Florida to Washington.

Laren Renee Sims, 36, who spent the last six years as Elisa McNabney, changed identities with the ease that others change hairstyles, authorities say, and she trailed behind her a string of theft and fraud. Now she's wanted for the slaying of Larry McNabney, who was found buried in a San Joaquin County vineyard in February. The 52-year-old lawyer had been poisoned with horse tranquilizer, an autopsy revealed.

Investigators have identified Sims as a Florida ex-convict who is wanted for violating a parole program there. She also is wanted in Washington state on fraudulent document charges, said Nelida Stone, spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department.

Tavia Williams, Larry McNabney's 33-year-old daughter, said she is sure her father knew nothing about his wife's past or the outstanding warrants.

"If Dad knew that, he would have turned her in," said the Reno teacher.

"She is a bizarre, manipulative and deceiving person," said Williams of her stepmother, who met her father when she came to work in his Las Vegas office in 1995.

Authorities were unsure of McNabney's wife's identity because she was connected to several Social Security numbers, bypassed getting a California driver's license and a thumb print, and used nearly a dozen aliases.

But another Florida ex-convict handed them the key they had been searching for, said Stone.

Sims once called Elizabeth Barasch, an inmate she did time with in a Florida state prison, and told her she knew a lawyer who could help her get out -- but she needed her Social Security number, said Stone. That's how Sims became Elizabeth Barasch, the name she used to marry a Las Vegas insurance man for six months in 1994 and the name she put on her marriage certificate to McNabney.

Barasch identified for Florida FBI agents the woman who stole her identity as she sat helplessly in a Florida state prison. Fingerprints from prison records matched fingerprints in a confiscated horse trailer belonging to the couple.

Authorities believe Sims somehow administered a lethal dose of horse tranquilizer to McNabney sometime after Sept. 10, when he was last seen at a Los Angeles County horse show. Sims had rented a wheelchair and wheeled him out of the hotel they were staying in, explaining his incapacity as drunkenness, witnesses told authorities.

During the months between then and January, when she disappeared from their Lodi-area home, authorities believe Sims amassed a small fortune by cashing checks meant for clients at his law practice and cleaning out trust accounts.

She told clients and acquaintances her husband was on vacation or in rehabilitation, or that he had joined a cult.

After clearing out furniture from their rented home, and closing down the Howe Avenue law practice, she leased a new red Jaguar, and Sims and her 17-year-old daughter disappeared Jan. 11 with an estimated $500,000. Authorities believe her daughter, Haylei Jordan, is with Sims.

A forensic anthropologist determined McNabney's body had been buried for three to six weeks when field workers found it on Feb. 5, so investigators believe Sims kept her husband's body in a household refrigerator for weeks. Investigators have confiscated two shovels with the labels still on them, two veterinary drug kits and a refrigerator Sims gave away to a farm worker who helped her move furniture.

Sims' father, a business owner in the Tampa Bay city of Brooksville, Fla., declined to comment on Thursday. He had told agents that he has had no contact with his daughter for 10 years, said Stone.

In Florida, Sims compiled a tangled criminal record that had her in and out of jails in several counties. She was sentenced to probation for eight years in 1989 for grand theft, credit card fraud and two counts of trafficking stolen property, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. She violated probation, though, and was sent to prison in August 1991 and released in March 1992, a spokeswoman said. She continued to be under supervision by the department on a type of probation until 1996, according to the department's records.

"I don't remember ever hearing that name and I never saw her check in with a parole officer or anything, said Ken Redelsperger, 43, the Las Vegas insurance man who was briefly married to Sims while she was still on probation.

He divorced Sims after credit card charges mounted to $30,000.

"I could see the writing on the wall," he said Thursday.

When Sims married McNabney in 1996, the name on their marriage certificate was Elizabeth Barasch, but the birth date was wrong, said Williams, McNabney's daughter.

"I believe their marriage wasn't legal," she said Thursday.

She and her brother are looking into the legal ramifications of getting the marriage nullified because of the false name, which could eliminate Sims from any estate benefits and void legal papers she signed, said Williams.

A Sacramento attorney who specializes in family law said fraud could be the basis for getting a marriage annulled in California.

But if Sims is convicted of murder, she would not likely benefit from her slain husband's estate anyway, said Michael Barber, past chairman of the family law section of the American Bar Association.

Williams said she believes a Shingle Springs piece of property that her father and Sims owned under the name Elisa McNabney is about all she has left from her father.

"It was supposed to be for their dream house," she said.

Sims took everything else, even chairs that Williams' grandfather had made, she said.

"This has been a very hard thing to go through," she said.

The nationwide search for Sims is gaining national attention with a scheduled segment on an upcoming "America's Most Wanted," said Stone.

Anticipating tips from viewers about Sims, the department has set up two telephone lines, she said. They are: (209) 468-5093 and (800) 948-5093.




About the Writer
---------------------------

The Bee's M.S. Enkoji can be reached at (916) 321-1106 or menkoji@sacbee.com. Bee research librarian Becky Boyd contributed to this report.


The Sacramento Bee Reports

Dutra's arrest was proper, judge rules
Authorities acted properly the day they arrested 21-year-old Sarah Dutra, and any statements she made about her involvement in a murder-for-money scheme that day can be submitted to a jury, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Friend: Alleged killer asked about tranquilizer
STOCKTON -- The woman who posed as Elisa McNabney for the six years she was married to slain Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney speculated with a friend over the lethal effect of a horse tranquilizer at a September horse show, the friend testified Tuesday.

McNabney signature forged, stepchild says
STOCKTON -- The 17-year-old stepdaughter of murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney testified Monday that her mother and Sarah Dutra forged McNabney's signature on documents, including checks, after his disappearance in September.

Ruling speeds murder case
STOCKTON -- Laren Sims Jordan's videotaped confession saying she and Sarah Dutra murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney can be used against Dutra in her preliminary hearing, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Slain lawyer's wife hangs herself
Laren Sims Jordan, the woman accused of killing her husband, Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney, died Sunday after hanging herself in a Florida jail cell using strips of her pillowcase braided into a rope.

A trail of deceit in Florida
DESTIN, Fla. -- They all met her as Shane Ivaroni. They know her now as Laren Sims Jordan. But they'll remember her as the woman who relied on the kindness of strangers -- and then some.

Slaying suspect moved in Florida
DESTIN, Fla. -- Laren Sims Jordan was moved early Friday from Okaloosa County's jail in this Florida Panhandle town and taken back to her hometown in the Tampa Bay area where she is wanted on 9-year-old felony warrants.

Wife of slain lawyer to fight extradition
CRESTVIEW, Fla. -- The wife of slain Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney appeared in a courtroom Wednesday for the first time since her capture, saying she will fight extradition to California, where she is charged with murdering her husband with horse tranquilizer.

Dutra, 21, is CSUS senior, studying art
Sarah Elizabeth Dutra, arrested Tuesday in the murder of Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney, is a 21-year-old student at California State University, Sacramento, who lived quietly in an apartment near the school.

Wife confesses to poisoning lawyer husband, police say
The wife of lawyer Larry McNabney told Florida authorities Tuesday that she and another employee of his Sacramento law office poisoned her husband, waited nearly a day for him to die, then bundled his body in a sheet with duct tape and put it in a refrigerator in the couple's Lodi-area home.
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 7:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.kovr13.com/02feb02/021402d.htm

KOVR 13 / NEWS AND SPORTS / NEWS STORY

The search continues for Elisa McNabney

KOVR 13 NEWS

REPORTER
Gloria Gomez

PHOTOGRAPHER
KOVR 13 News

APPEARED ON
THE 10:00 News (2/13/02)
She's the widow of murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney and she hasn't been seen for months.

She's the only suspect in her husband's murder, and she's on the run. We're learning more about Elisa McNabney. She's the widow of murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney and she hasn't been seen for months. But police are widening the search through a hotline, and talking to those closest to her. Gloria Gomez has more.

KOVR 13 NEWS

Larry McNabney's daughter, Tavia Williams, is talking about her step-mother, who she believes murdered her father.

Tavia McNabney / Daughter: "We can't get him back, but I don't want her to enjoy one more minute of life."

Larry McNabney's daughter, Tavia Williams, is talking about her step-mother, who she believes murdered her father. And now Tavia says investigators are talking to those closest to Elisa Mcnabney.

According to Tavia, Elisa had a close female friend. The two women were joined at the hip. They would go on extensive shopping spree's and take frequent trips to Reno, Nevada.

Tavia McNabney / Daughter: "I know they were really wild and they would come up and spend some time with an attorney up here."

Sheriff's officials confirmed they have interviewed this female friend more than once, but had little else to say on the matter.

Steve Vanmeter / San Joaquin Co. Sheriff's Dept.: "That my understanding is that at one point they were close friends. Yes."

McNabney was a successful Sacramento attorney who shared a passion for horses with his wife. McNabney was reported missing in January. He was found a few weeks later buried in shallow grave in San Joaquin County. His wife hasn't been seen since.

Posted to the web on 2/14/02 at 2:15 PM
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.karisable.com/dvcacasead.htm

>>>Elisa McNabney, was charged with the murder of her husband, Sacramento lawyer, Larry Williams McNabney, 53. McNabney was killed with a lethal dose of horse tranquilizer after Sept. 10, 2001. His body was stuffed into a refrigerator months before it was found buried in the vineyard on Feb. 5, 2002. His wife, Elisa, last seen leaving their home January 2002. Her real name is Laren Renee Sims. She is a Florida ex-convict. After her capture in Destin, FL she hung herself in a jail cell. Sarah Dutra, a Sacramento, student is also accused of playing a role in the death.<<<
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 8:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020322/wwww.html

Secretary faces murder charge

STOCKTON (AP) ---- Prosecutors charged a Sacramento legal secretary and college student with first-degree murder Thursday for allegedly helping to poison her boss along with his wife.

If convicted of the murder with special circumstances charge, Sarah Elizabeth Dutra, 21, could face the death penalty, a San Joaquin County judge told her Thursday.

Dutra was the legal secretary for lawyer Larry McNabney, who disappeared last September after being seen at a Los Angeles horse show.

Dutra, who did not enter a plea, may be represented by the same attorney who defended a Sacramento woman convicted of poisoning her elderly tenants.

Kevin Clymo defended Dorothea Puente, a 61-year-old woman who was sentenced to prison on nine murder counts for poisoning elderly tenants to get their pension and disability benefits.

Clymo made a special appearance Thursday and will either return to court April 3 with Dutra or decline to take the case.

Dutra is accused of murder and conspiring to kill the 53-year-old McNabney with an overdose of horse tranquilizer.

Authorities said Dutra and McNabney's wife, Laren Renee Sims Jordan, 36, implicated each other this week after Jordan was captured in Florida Monday night following a nationwide hunt. While married to McNabney, Sims Jordan was known as Elisa McNabney.

San Joaquin County sheriff's deputies said Dutra, who was class president at Vacaville High School, confessed Tuesday and was jailed on suspicion of murder and conspiracy charges. She is a senior majoring in art studio at California State University, Sacramento.

"The judge asked her if she understood the charges and she said yes," said prosecutor Lester Fleming. "Then he informed her that the maximum penalty is death. You don't often get a completely quiet courtroom, but you could have heard a pin drop."

Fleming said District Attorney John Phillip will make the decision to seek the death penalty. If convicted, Dutra could also receive life in prison without parole.

On Wednesday, a judge gave Sims Jordan the opportunity to waive extradition during a hearing at the Okaloosa County Courthouse in Crestview, Fla., but her court-appointed public defender told her not to sign anything yet, said Rick Hord, an Okaloosa sheriff's spokesman.

Nellie Stone, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department, said Thursday that San Joaquin investigators were preparing to request a warrant from Gov. Gray Davis.

"The governor will do anything within his power to assist the extradition of Laren Sims back to California," said Byron Tucker, a Davis spokesman.

While it may take two weeks for San Joaquin prosecutors to file the paperwork, they will do what's necessary to get Sims Jordan back, Stone said.

That return could be three to six months away if Jordan fights extradition, Stone said. But a governor's warrant would speed the process to about 30 days.

Stone said investigators were on their way to Brooksville, Fla., Thursday to visit Haylei Jordan, Sims Jordan's 17-year-old daughter to get a statement.

Sims Jordan is currently being held without bond in Florida's Okaloosa County Jail on parole-violation charges.

Sims Jordan spent seven months in Florida prison from 1991 to 1992 for violating probation from a 1989 grand theft and fraud conviction. She's charged with violating parole by leaving Florida to move to Las Vegas around 1994.

On Tuesday, Dunn said she gave a three-page written statement that she and Dutra had poisoned McNabney in a hotel in Los Angeles. He died later at their home in Woodbridge and Sims Jordan said she eventually buried his body in a nearby vineyard.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Downtown/DailyNews/mcnabney_020417

POLTACT ABC
ABCNEWS.com ABCNEWSstore.com
Master of disguise
The woman known in the horse-showing world as Elisa McNabney turned out to have a dark past. (ABCNEWS.com)
Dark Past
Attorney's Wife Accused in His Death
ABCNEWS.com

April 17 — Larry McNabney was a successful attorney, with an attractive younger wife, three grown children, and a growing national reputation in his new hobby, quarter horse showing.

So when the 52-year-old disappeared last fall, his friends and family thought it was strange. For the next four months, his wife Elisa gave his family and colleagues varying accounts of where he was: that he was vacationing in Puerto Rico, or partying in Las Vegas, or in a rehab center in Florida or Washington — even that he had joined a cult.

In November, suspicious employees at McNabney's Sacramento law practice contacted police. They tried to locate his wife, but she was often out of town, attending horse competitions around the country. Then, in January, she disappeared too, taking off in her red Jaguar.

A month later, on Feb. 5, McNabney's body was found in a shallow grave in a California vineyard, one leg sticking out of the ground. Police at first thought it was possible Elisa was also a victim, but then they found McNabney's horse trailer loaded with Elisa's belongings, including documents that would lead them to her mysterious past.

Friend: He Was 'Obsessed'

McNabney met Elisa in 1995, when she started to work at his law practice, then located in Nevada. The couple married in January 1996, when he was 47 and she was just about to turn 30. Friends said he knew little about his new wife's past, but did not seem to care. They noted that she always changed the subject when asked about her past, but he told them, "I've got everything under control."

But the following year McNabney was censured by the Nevada State Bar after his wife was accused of embezzling money from his clients. But he did not leave her. "He was obsessed with her for whatever reason," said Tom Mitchell, one of McNabney's three closest friends in Nevada. "He knew what she had done, and he knew that he would constantly have to worry about her, that he couldn't trust her. But he wanted to be with her."

In 1998, the McNabneys left Nevada and started a new life in Sacramento, Calif. They had less and less contact with McNabney's friends and family in Nevada. McNabney's daughter from a previous marriage, Tavia Williams, said Elisa told her she could have no contact with her father, while Mitchell suspected she wanted to distance him from the people who cared about him.

But they heard about the couple's successes in horse competitions. "Larry was the fast-rising star in the United States concerning quarter horse showing, period. He was the fella and he had a national reputation," said Fred Atcheson, one of McNabney's Nevada friends.

The McNabneys made a mark in California and on the showing circuit, where they were known as popular and outgoing. Horse trainer Denise Reese remembers them as "a very loving, happy couple," while her husband Evan says McNabney was an "excellent showman" in the ring.

McNabney was last seen at a horse show in Industry, Calif. in September. On Sept. 10, witnesses said he made uncharacteristic mistakes while he was performing in the halter class competition, and went to bed early saying he felt ill. The next day, vendors at the show saw Elisa wheeling McNabney away in a wheelchair.

Office Closed, Assets Liquidated

Although McNabney disappeared from public, Elisa continued to show up at horse shows for several months. Then she closed his Sacramento law office and vanished too, last seen on Jan. 11 leaving town in her Jaguar.

When San Joaquin County police went to McNabney's office, they found the place cleared out, except for his personal mementos. They also found his horse trailer packed with Elisa's belongings, including documents for different aliases. Elisa had sold off her husband's assets in the past few months, raising an estimated $500,000, the police found.

Then McNabney's body turned up, and the cause of death was identified as a lethal dose of acepromazine, a horse tranquilizer. Police charged Elisa with first-degree murder with special circumstances, poisoning with a motive for financial gain, and a federal warrant was issued for her arrest.

A Woman of Many Names

The San Joaquin police also learned who Elisa really was: an ex-convict from Florida with a rap sheet 113 pages long. Known to have used at least 38 aliases and numerous Social Security numbers, her real name was Laren Renee Sims. She was wanted in Florida and Washington for credit card and grand theft charges.

When police finally tracked her down in Destin, Fla. on March 18, Sims, 36, went peacefully, telling them, "I'm the one you're looking for."

The next day, she came clean in a three-page confession. She said she and an accomplice fed him the horse tranquilizer and drove him into the mountains. She said they tried to bury him, but he was still alive so they took him home, where he finally died that night. There they loaded him into a refrigerator. When rigor mortis set in, his body stiffened, forcing the door open. So, Sims said, they wrapped the refrigerator in duct tape to keep it shut, and left the body there for about three months. Finally, she said, she chose a vineyard to bury him in because he had always liked wine.

Sims will never face charges in court. On March 30, she was found hanging in her cell at the Hernando County jail. She left a suicide note asking her lawyer to sue the jail for failing to prevent her from killing herself, and suggesting the money be put in a trust for her two children.
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2002/Mar-25-Mon-2002/new

Monday, March 25, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Family's warnings failed to save man

New wife's conduct also alarmed friends

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO -- A Reno woman says she warned her father that his fifth wife was a "black widow" long before the wife was accused of murdering him in California and looting his law practice.

Tavia Williams said she was suspicious of Laren Renee Sims Jordan's motives from the time her father met her in 1995.

Jordan, arrested last week in Destin, Fla., has confessed to poisoning and murdering her Sacramento, Calif., husband with a horse tranquilizer.

"I had told my dad, my brother, my husband and my mom that she was a black widow," Williams told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"I had no idea about her past until these last few weeks. We had no idea how horrible her past has been. All the aliases she's used and the people that she's used."

McNabney never knew the real name of his wife, a thrice-married woman of 36 with a 113-page criminal record.

Jordan has been charged with killing her husband with the help of Sarah Dutra, a college student who worked with Sims in McNabney's Sacramento office.

The criminal complaint lists the married name of Elisa McNabney and 38 aliases.

McNabney, 52, was last seen alive Sept. 10. Farmworkers discovered his body Feb. 5 in a San Joaquin County, Calif., vineyard.

Until McNabney and his wife moved to California in 1998, two years after their marriage, they had homes in both Reno and Las Vegas.

"I would send birthday or I-miss-you cards, and she would intercept them and not give them to him," said Williams, a first-grade teacher.

"I despise her. I think she is devoid of a heart. She has no conscience, she has no morals and the only person she cares about is herself. Elisa is evil to the very depths of her being," Williams added.

In 1998, McNabney was reprimanded by the Nevada Bar after Jordan was alleged to have embezzled about $74,000 from his clients.

Reno lawyer Fred Atcheson, friends with McNabney for 34 years,, said he was suspicious about Jordan.

"Larry called me up and talked to me about how Elisa was a thief. He said, `I don't even know who this lady is,' " Atcheson told the Gazette-Journal. "I suggested he get rid of her, and I think that affected our relationship. Once I chimed in on that, I didn't hear from him again."
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://timelines.ws/states/CAL2001.HTML

2001 Sep 10, Larry McNabney (53), Sacramento lawyer, was poisoned by his wife, Laren Renee Sims (35), with horse tranquilizer and died the next day. His body was found Feb 6, 2002. Sims (36) was arrested in Florida and confessed on Mar 18, 2002. Sims hanged herself Mar 30.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Downtown/DailyNews/mcnabney_020417

>>>Friends said he knew little about his new wife's past, but did not seem to care. They noted that she always changed the subject when asked about her past, but he told them, "I've got everything under control."<<<

This is me, benn. I took the above off of one of the posts above. "I've got everything under control," quoting lawyer Larry McNabney.

Doesn't that sound a little like Chandra telling her mother that Condit had explained everything. (I don't know if I quoted Chandra correctly here.)

benn
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.kovr13.com/newsscripts/ten.htm

KOVR 13 / NEWS AND SPORTS / NEWS STORY

Sarah Dutra will stand trial for the murder of a Sacramento attorney

KOVR 13 NEWS
The prosecution just announced it will not seek the death penalty in this case. Dutra will be arraigned in two weeks.

A judge decided 21-year-old Sarah Dutra will face murder charges in the death of Larry McNabney.

It's alleged McNabney's wife, Laren Sims and Sarah Dutra poisoned McNabney with horse tranquilizers, then stuffed his body in a refrigerator. Before Sims committed suicide, she admitted to murdering her husband with Dutra's help.

Outside the courtroom McNabney's family was pleased with the judges decision.

McNabney's Daughter: "I'm happy that she's going to be held responsible for what she did. It's still hard to hear obviously. It's hard to hear someone being defended for something they admitted to doing."

Because Dutra will be charged with murder for financial gain that means she would be eligible for the death penalty. The prosecution just announced it will not seek the death penalty in this case. Dutra will be arraigned in two weeks.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.kovr13.com/04apr02/vo040302g.htm

KOVR 13 / NEWS AND SPORTS / NEWS STORY

Sarah Dutra enters a "not guilty" plea

KOVR 13 NEWS
The 21-year-old entered the "not guilty" plea to charges of murdering Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney with horse tranquilizers.

Sarah Dutra appeared in a Stockton court…this time to enter a "not guilty" plea.

The 21-year-old entered the "not guilty" plea to charges of murdering Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney with horse tranquilizers. Her attorney, Kevin Clymo, asked the judge for more time in order to review a lengthy seven hundred-page report. The judge gave him two weeks to catch up.

The co-defendant in the case, Laren Sims committed suicide over the weekend, but had earlier confessed to murdering her husband with Dutra.

Dutra's lawyer says his client was another victim in Sims' web of deceit.

Sarah Dutra is due back in court April 18 for a preliminary hearing.
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 17, 2002 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thereporter.com/Current/News/02/04/daily040402.html

No rush in murder case
By Darryl Richardson/Reporter Staff

A 21-year-old former Vacaville woman looked straight ahead and uttered only one word during her arraignment on murder charges Wednesday in a Stockton courtroom filled with her family members.

Approximately 30 of Sarah Dutra's family members watched silently as Dutra entered a plea of innocent to the charge that she assisted in the death of Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney in September. Through her attorney, Kevin Clymo, Dutra also denied the special allegation that the murder occurred for monetary gain, an allegation which, if proven, could lead to the death penalty.

Her hair pulled back and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Dutra sat silently throughout the hearing, occasionally nodding to comments Clymo whispered to her. She only spoke once, responding "yes" when San Joaquin County Judge Bernard Garber asked her if she agreed to waive her right to a speedy preliminary hearing in the matter.

Both Clymo and San Joaquin Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa told Garber they just received nearly 700 pages of documents and several videotapes from authorities in Florida, where McNabney's wife, Laren Sims Jordan, committed suicide last weekend in jail. Sims Jordan was fighting extradition back to California at the time of her death.

Garber granted a request from the attorneys to delay the setting of a preliminary hearing in the case. Clymo said he wanted two additional weeks to analyze the materials, after which he would be able to pick a definite date to set the hearing. Garber postponed the setting of the date until April 18 at 8:30 a.m.

Prosecutors allege Sims Jordan and Dutra, a 1998 graduate of Vacaville High School and an art student at Sacramento State University, gave McNabney a large dose of horse tranquilizers while the three were in Los Angeles for a horse show. When McNabney did not die immediately, the three returned to Northern California, stopping outside Yosemite National Park, where Dutra is reported to have begun digging a grave for McNabney.

Following his death, Sims Jordan and Dutra reportedly wrapped the body, then placed it in a refrigerator in McNabney's Lodi-area home. Sims Jordan admitted burying the body several months later in a San Joaquin County vineyard.

Following Wednesday's hearing, Clymo said Dutra is holding up as well as could be expected in jail.

"She's doing remarkably well, given the circumstances," he said. "The jail has allowed her to be as comfortable as possible. They have been very accommodating to me as well. At least I know she's safe there."

Both Clymo and Testa said they were anxious to receive the remaining documents from Florida prosecutors and to see Sims Jordan's suicide note, which was not released until later in the day.

"I think we would both like to see what she had to say," Testa said following the hearing. "Even though it would not be admissible against Sarah Dutra, it would still give us some additional information."

The bizarre nature of the case has spawned a great deal of media attention and innuendo concerning the relationship between McNabney, Sims Jordan and Dutra. The Lodi News-Sentinel reported Wednesday that a law enforcement official close to the case said McNabney complained to several people about a romantic relationship between Dutra and Sims Jordan. Clymo said the only information he had received about the claim had come from the newspaper.

"Law enforcement seems to have quickly provided information to the press, but they haven't been as quick to get it to us," he said.

Clymo then expressed thanks to Vacaville residents who have begun a defense fund for Dutra and have been providing words of comfort and support to the family.

"They (the Dutra family) are unbelievably grateful for the support from Vacaville," he said. "When I talk to them about it, I can see the moisture welling up in their eyes."

The attorney, who has handled many prominent cases, including a portion of the Unabomber case, said Dutra's friends should continue to keep the faith about her innocence.

"I've seen enough to feel solidly optimistic," he said. "I truly don't believe Sarah is guilty. She was the victim of some horrible circumstances."

Darryl Richardson can be reached at courts@thereporter.com.
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benn



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 6:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dutra's arrest was proper, judge rules
Her statements in the McNabney murder case can be heard by a jury, he decides.
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Authorities acted properly the day they arrested 21-year-old Sarah Dutra, and any statements she made about her involvement in a murder-for-money scheme that day can be submitted to a jury, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Dutra is accused of helping 36-year-old Laren Sims Jordan, who poisoned her husband, a Sacramento lawyer, then buried his body in a San Joaquin County vineyard.

Jordan, who was known as Elisa McNabney when she was married to Larry McNabney, hanged herself in a Florida jail cell in March after confessing to authorities and implicating Dutra, who had worked part time in McNabney's law practice.

The same day Jordan was arrested in Florida, San Joaquin County deputies picked up Dutra at her Howe Avenue apartment in Sacramento.

If convicted, Dutra faces life in prison without the chance for parole because of a special circumstance of murdering for financial gain. Checks intended for McNabney's clients were forged with his signature, long after the lawyer disappeared at a Los Angeles County horse show in 2001.

During Tuesday's daylong hearing, Dutra's attorney argued that, when five San Joaquin County deputies -- including a SWAT team member -- showed up at her apartment about midnight on March 18, searched her apartment, then drove her to Stockton for an all-night interview, Dutra believed she was under arrest and unable to refuse their requests when she made her statements.

At one point, she vomited during questioning, he said.

"That detention, if that's what it was, blossomed into a full arrest," said Kevin Clymo. "That arrest was without probable cause."

But Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber said that despite the late hour, Dutra was awake, working on a college paper, and nothing else deputies did that night should have given her the impression she was under arrest until she actually was arrested the next morning.

"There was no inappropriate conduct on the part of the deputies," he said.

Dutra voluntarily agreed to talk, he said.

The detectives who knocked at Dutra's door that night testified Tuesday that Dutra and her boyfriend, Jason Cataldo, opened the door and willingly admitted the deputies.

Detective Deborah Scheffel said she instructed all the deputies to restrain themselves at Dutra's doorstep.

"I want this low-key," Scheffel recalled saying. "I don't want her afraid or frightened."

Scheffel characterized her method with Dutra during her investigation as a truth seeker using gentle pressure and said that she believed Dutra was holding back because she feared Jordan.

Cataldo said he signed a paper allowing deputies to search his vehicle and belongings, although he didn't live at the apartment.

"I'm sure I had a choice," he said, "but I knew I was helping Sarah by cooperating."

If he hadn't signed the paper, he said, he knew that the deputies would have returned the next day with a warrant.

After interviewing Dutra through the night, Scheffel said, she took Dutra, who was an art major at California State University, Sacramento, to another room reserved for children at the sheriff's office.

After Scheffel handed her a blanket, Dutra bedded down on stuffed animals in the room and slept, while Scheffel went off to arrange to take her home, she said.

But after telling San Joaquin County Sheriff Baxter Dunn that she needed more time to get to the bottom of Dutra's involvement, Dunn made the call to arrest her instead, Scheffel said.

After another interview, Dutra was handcuffed and arrested, she said.

Dutra's trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 6.

About the Writer
---------------------------

The Bee's M.S. Enkoji can be reached at (916) 321-1106 or menkoji@sacbee.com.

benn
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benn



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 19, 2002 7:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This si the article that says they took McNabney out of the hotel in a wheelchair. Some of these articles may overlap.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/mcnabney

McNabney signature forged, stepchild says
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, June 25, 2002
STOCKTON -- The 17-year-old stepdaughter of murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney testified Monday that her mother and Sarah Dutra forged McNabney's signature on documents, including checks, after his disappearance in September.


"Yes, more than once," said Haylei Jordan, daughter of Laren Sims Jordan, McNabney's wife of six years.

The teenager, looking composed in a dark blue suit, testified for about an hour in the opening day of a preliminary hearing for the 21-year-old Dutra.

The California State University, Sacramento, student who worked in McNabney's office is accused of first-degree murder in the death of the 52-year-old McNabney. She has pleaded not guilty.

Dutra is accused of plotting with Sims Jordan to poison McNabney and steal money from his practice. She could face the death penalty if she is tried and convicted.

Sims Jordan disappeared from the couple's Lodi-area home in January, taking her daughter, who says she thought they were on the lam because her mother took her as a young child without having legal custody.

After a nationwide search for the 36-year-old Sims Jordan, who used the name Elisa while she was married to McNabney, she was arrested in Florida in March. After giving authorities an account of how she and Dutra killed McNabney, she hanged herself in her jail cell.

McNabney's body, buried in a vineyard about 15 minutes from the couple's home, was found in February by a field worker. McNabney was last seen alive in September at a Los Angeles-area horse show, accompanied by his wife and Dutra.

Haylei Jordan said that McNabney's alcohol and drug use put a strain on the marriage and that she was not surprised when she returned from a stay at a Maine horse farm in September to learn that he had disappeared.

"Larry was not a mentally stable man," she said.

Dutra told her that McNabney had gone off to join a cult in Washington state, she testified, and that's why her mother gave away -- or threw away -- McNabney's personal belongings.

She said her mother and Dutra were inseparable friends, shopping and dining out together, and Dutra often stayed with her mother at her home.

"We all slept in the same bed. Sarah spent a lot of time at that house," Haylei Jordan said.

Sims Jordan, an ex-felon who skipped probation in Florida years ago, married McNabney soon after she started working in his office, using a name she stole from a former cellmate.

In a written account she gave Florida authorities, Sims Jordan said she poured a horse anesthetic into McNabney's mouth while he slept in a hotel after the September horse show.

She and Dutra shuttled him from the hotel in a wheelchair, then drove north. When he died the next day, the two women stored his body in a refrigerator in the garage of the Lodi-area home, Sims Jordan told authorities.

After several months, she removed the body and hauled it to a remote vineyard about 15 minutes from their house and buried him, she told authorities.

Haylei Jordan -- who said her mother set her up in her own apartment in Sacramento, where Dutra roomed with her for a while -- said she noticed the refrigerator in the garage, blocked off with stacks of boxes.

With Dutra's help, Sims Jordan continued to run her husband's office, her daughter said Monday.

Haylei Jordan, who was granted immunity for testifying and brought her own attorney, said she too had forged McNabney's signature while working in the office as a receptionist.

Her mother began packing up their belongings and shutting down the office in December, she said, and the two left town, first for a Phoenix horse show and then for the East Coast.

They ended up in a small beach resort in the Florida Panhandle, where her mother was arrested after she falsified documents on an application for a job in a lawyer's office.

Since her mother's arrest, the girl has been living with her grandparents in Brooksville, Fla.

The daughter's account of her mother's marriage contrasts with that of McNabney's 26-year-old son, Joe, who also testified Monday.

When he spent evenings with his father and stepmother, they seemed compatible, he said. "They got along real well, like best friends."

He grew suspicious and frustrated, he said, when his stepmother seemed to be controlling his access to his father.

His father once told him that his wife was on medication for compulsive lying, he said.

"I knew she was -- faulty," he said.

Sims Jordan wrote in her account of her husband's murder that she had poured ketamine, a liquid veterinary anesthetic, into McNabney's mouth, but toxicology experts testified Monday that McNabney died from another veterinary anesthetic, xylazine.

About the Writer
---------------------------

The Bee's M.S. Enkoji can be reached at (916) 321-1106 or menkoji@sacbee.com .

The Sacramento Bee Reports

Dutra's arrest was proper, judge rules
Authorities acted properly the day they arrested 21-year-old Sarah Dutra, and any statements she made about her involvement in a murder-for-money scheme that day can be submitted to a jury, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Friend: Alleged killer asked about tranquilizer
STOCKTON -- The woman who posed as Elisa McNabney for the six years she was married to slain Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney speculated with a friend over the lethal effect of a horse tranquilizer at a September horse show, the friend testified Tuesday.

McNabney signature forged, stepchild says
STOCKTON -- The 17-year-old stepdaughter of murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney testified Monday that her mother and Sarah Dutra forged McNabney's signature on documents, including checks, after his disappearance in September.

Ruling speeds murder case
STOCKTON -- Laren Sims Jordan's videotaped confession saying she and Sarah Dutra murdered Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney can be used against Dutra in her preliminary hearing, a San Joaquin Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Slain lawyer's wife hangs herself
Laren Sims Jordan, the woman accused of killing her husband, Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney, died Sunday after hanging herself in a Florida jail cell using strips of her pillowcase braided into a rope.

A trail of deceit in Florida
DESTIN, Fla. -- They all met her as Shane Ivaroni. They know her now as Laren Sims Jordan. But they'll remember her as the woman who relied on the kindness of strangers -- and then some.

Slaying suspect moved in Florida
DESTIN, Fla. -- Laren Sims Jordan was moved early Friday from Okaloosa County's jail in this Florida Panhandle town and taken back to her hometown in the Tampa Bay area where she is wanted on 9-year-old felony warrants.

Wife of slain lawyer to fight extradition
CRESTVIEW, Fla. -- The wife of slain Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney appeared in a courtroom Wednesday for the first time since her capture, saying she will fight extradition to California, where she is charged with murdering her husband with horse tranquilizer.

Dutra, 21, is CSUS senior, studying art
Sarah Elizabeth Dutra, arrested Tuesday in the murder of Sacramento lawyer Larry McNabney, is a 21-year-old student at California State University, Sacramento, who lived quietly in an apartment near the school.

Wife confesses to poisoning lawyer husband, police say
The wife of lawyer Larry McNabney told Florida authorities Tuesday that she and another employee of his Sacramento law office poisoned her husband, waited nearly a day for him to die, then bundled his body in a sheet with duct tape and put it in a refrigerator in the couple's Lodi-area home.<<<

benn
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benn



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PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2003 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

January 7, 2003

Well, I saw a woman deputy escort Sarah Dutra into the courtroom. Sarah was not handcuffed. From the tv camera's point of view there was only one deputy.

The worst sentence Sarah can receive, at this point in the proceedings, is a life sentence. The death sentence has already been set aside.

I suppose we will start getting printed news reports soon.

benn
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