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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: Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I finally found a printed news story about this case. I have seen it on the tv news for a couple of days now. I was thinking the trial was in Sacramento. Evidently it is in Stockton.

>>>>SF Gate www.sfgate.com

Jury selection begins in Stockton murder trial

Wednesday, January 8, 2003
©2003 Associated Press

URL:

(01-08) 08:41 PST STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) --

Jury selection for the trial of a 22-year-old woman accused of murdering a Sacramento-area attorney started Tuesday, with San Joaquin County court officials summoning 250 potential jurors.

Former college student Sarah Dutra faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Larry McNabney, an attorney who disappeared in September 2001.

McNabney's body was found in February, buried in a San Joaquin County vineyard. Authorities said he was given a lethal dose of horse tranquilizers.

Between the time of McNabney's disappearance and the discovery of his body, McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, ran his law firm, where Dutra was a receptionist.

Authorities said Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney in September 2001 while the three of them were at a Southern California horse show, then hid his body in McNabney's home refrigerator until January 2002. At that time, Sims buried him, investigators said.

Sims, who had been using the name Elisa McNabney, fled the state in January 2002 and was arrested in Florida in March. Investigators there said she admitted her guilt and implicated Dutra.

Sims then committed suicide, hanging herself in a Florida jail, leaving Dutra to face murder charges.

©2003 Associated Press <<<<

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benn



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Stockton Record seems to be the best source of information about the Sarah Dutra murder trial. I thought I had tried the Record before, but evidently I did something wrong.

http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/010803/news/articles/010803-gn-10.php#

250 jurors summoned for Dutra trial
Prosecutors hope to find 12

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, January 8, 2003

San Joaquin County courts summoned 250 jurors Tuesday in an effort to find 12 who can impartially and fairly decide the future of a 22-year-old woman accused of murdering an attorney who lived in Woodbridge.

Former college student Sarah Dutra faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the death of attorney Larry McNabney, who disappeared in September 2001 and was later found buried in a San Joaquin County vineyard.

Between the time of McNabney's disappearance and the discovery of his body, McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, ran his law firm, where Dutra was a receptionist.

Authorities say Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney in September 2001 while the three of them were at a Southern California horse show, then hid his body in McNabney's home refrigerator until January 2002. At that time, Sims buried him, authorities say.

On Tuesday, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber admonished potential jurors not to discuss the case with anyone, read newspaper or Internet accounts concerning it or watch television reports about the case.

Out of the 125 potential jurors called Tuesday morning, barely a dozen had no knowledge of the case. They were immediately given a lengthy questionnaire and told to return to court next week.
::: Advertisement :::

Garber asked the remaining people on the panel if any of them believed they could not be fair to Dutra, judging the case on the evidence and not on what had been reported in the media.

Most called for jury duty agreed that they could and were instructed to fill out the questionnaires.

But two of those who appeared for jury duty said they had already made up their minds about Dutra's guilt or innocence. They were excused from the panel.

Witnesses testified during Dutra's preliminary hearing that they last saw McNabney at a City of Industry horse show in September 2001. At the time, the normally active 53-year-old was being pushed in a wheelchair by Sims at a Los Angeles horse show.

A day later, authorities said, Sims started clearing out her husband's office and sold his $110,000 horse trailer and truck. She and Dutra both forged McNabney's name on checks and told varying stories explaining his whereabouts during the time he was missing, authorities say.

Sims shut down McNabney's law practice last January and disappeared with about $500,000 of McNabney's assets, according to officials. She fled the state, leading authorities on a highly publicized cross-country chase that ended in March with her apprehension in the Florida Panhandle. Once arrested, she admitted her guilt to Florida authorities and, officials say, implicated Dutra.

Sims then committed suicide, hanging herself in a Florida jail, leaving Dutra to face murder charges.

Meanwhile, San Joaquin County sheriff's investigators questioned Dutra about the case. She admitted participating in the cover-up of the homicide and told detectives that after McNabney was poisoned, Sims and she drove to Yosemite National Park, where Sims ordered her to dig a grave.

Since the ground was too hard and McNabney was still alive, Dutra and Sims returned to McNabney's Woodbridge home, where he died, according to court documents.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com<<<<

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benn



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PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.recordnet.com/daily/news/articles/011703-gn-1.php

Defense: Dutra didn't help kill lawyer

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, January 17, 2003

The 22-year-old former college student accused of murdering a Sacramento attorney cried quietly Thursday as her attorney wrapped up his opening statement to the San Joaquin County jury charged with deciding whether she will spend the rest of her life in prison.

Defense attorney Kevin Clymo, who represented Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and multiple-murderer Dorthea Puente, told the jury that someone else, not Sarah Dutra, assisted in the September 2001 murder of Laren Sims' husband, Larry McNabney.

The 52-year-old McNabney disappeared in September 2001. Five months elapsed before his body was found buried in a vineyard near Linden.

Sims, who was office manager of McNabney's Sacramento law firm, hired Dutra to work in the office in May 2000. During the summer, the two women formed a close friendship, according to Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa. He described how the friendship survived Dutra's study abroad and said McNabney complained to others that when Dutra was around, he was "odd man out."

Testa told the jury Thursday that he believes circumstantial evidence will prove Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney at a City of Industry horse show on Sept. 10 or 11, 2001, then moved to cover up the crime on Sept. 11 as the rest of the country absorbed the horror of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Clymo insisted there isn't enough evidence to convict Dutra of McNabney's murder and pointed to others in the couple's circle of friends who may have assisted Sims with covering up it up. He said the evidence will show that a friend of McNabney's, who owns a ranch in Clements, could have helped Sims bury the body, since shovels authorities say were used for that purpose were found on his property.
::: Advertisement :::

"I believe what you will conclude is that (he) helped Elisa McNabney (aka Laren Sims) ... cover up the crime," Clymo said. "I believe you will conclude that (Dutra) is not guilty ... of murder."

But officials at the District Attorney's Office said the man has not been charged in the case.

"Our position is that there is no credible evidence to link him to it," Deputy District Attorney Lester Fleming said. "There's never been any contemplation as to whether or not to charge him with anything."

Both defense and prosecuting attorneys told the jury that Sims -- known to most as Elisa McNabney -- was a con artist, a master at stealing identification and a consummate liar.

"Elisa had a dark side," Testa said. "She was a fraud and a cheat and had an evil streak. Anyone who knew her well knew that about her. And Sarah knew her well."

Both attorneys described the McNabneys' interest in horses and involvement in the horse-show circuit. Authorities contend that the last time Larry McNabney was seen alive was at the City of Industry horse show.

Testa contends that it was there that Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney with horse tranquilizer. After bringing the body back to the McNabneys' Woodbridge home, according to authorities, the pair concealed it in a refrigerator for several months and told varying stories about McNabney's whereabouts until Sims buried the body in a Linden-area vineyard in January 2002.

That month, Sims left the county and began a cross-country flight that ended in March with her arrest in Florida. Shortly after her arrest, she wrote a lengthy suicide note implicating Dutra. She then killed herself.

During the months that elapsed between Larry McNabney's disappearance and the cold February 2002 afternoon when authorities unearthed his body near Linden, Testa said, Sims and Dutra both forged McNabney's name on checks and told varying stories explaining his whereabouts. They purchased expensive cars, clothes and jewelry.

"Sarah never seemed bothered by Larry's absence," Testa said. "She never asked the question, 'Where do you think Larry is?' "

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com

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benn



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PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2003 9:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Murderers aren't too bright. My comment. benn

>>>>Friend testifies in Dutra case
Witness: Pair looked strange, scared at horse show

http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/011803/news/articles/011803-gn

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, January 18, 2003

A woman who traveled the horse-show circuit with Larry McNabney and his wife testified Friday that she saw a strange- and scared-looking Sarah Dutra and Laren Sims drive off with a wheelchair, golf clubs and two shovels the day the Sacramento attorney disappeared.

Dutra, 22, is charged in the murder of Larry McNabney, who was last seen alive at a horse show in Industry, a town in Los Angeles County, in September 2001. McNabney's wife, Sims -- known to most as Elisa McNabney -- also was charged with the murder, but she hanged herself in a Florida jail shortly after her March 2002 arrest. Before her death, Sims signed statements that she and Dutra killed her 52-year-old husband.

Debbie Kail's friendship with McNabney and Sims began in 1999 and grew as they attended the same horse shows. Eventually Kail became the couple's trainer. Dutra became a constant companion of Sims, too, after Sims hired her to work in McNabney's Sacramento law firm.

Kail testified that McNabney and Sims arrived Sept. 5, 2001, at a horse show in Industry accompanied by Kail's father, Clements horse-ranch owner Greg Whalen. Dutra arrived Sept. 8 for the weekend.

All stayed at the same hotel during the show.

On Sept. 10, Kail testified, Whalen called McNabney's room to ask if he wanted to join him and Kail for dinner, but McNabney declined. He said he wanted to stay in his room and rest.

The next day, Sims and Dutra appeared at Kail's room at about 7 a.m., Kail said.

"Elisa walked in ... and said she'd had a fight with Larry at 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m.," Kail said. "She said that he had left."

Authorities contend that Sims and Dutra used horse tranquilizer to poison McNabney in his hotel room. After renting a wheelchair at a hospital-supply store, authorities say, the women moved McNabney to his truck and drove north.

Dutra and Sims drove to Yosemite National Park, where Sims ordered Dutra to bury him, according to court documents. But he was still alive, and the ground was too hard, so they brought McNabney back to Woodbridge, where he died.

Authorities believe the women put his body in a refrigerator at the Woodbridge house.

In late December 2001 or early January 2002, according to authorities, Sims buried McNabney in a vineyard near Linden. His body was discovered Feb. 5.

Kail testified she saw Sims and Dutra the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, in McNabney's red truck near the stables where the horse show was being held.

The two of them looked strange and scared, she said.

Piled in the back of the truck were a set of golf clubs, a few coolers, a dirty clothes bag, shovels and a wheelchair.

At some point that morning -- when Dutra wasn't present -- Kail said, she asked Sims why she needed the wheelchair.

"She said it was (for) a psychology project Sarah was working on," Kail testified. "She said Larry had bought (the shovels) earlier in the week ... for the new house."

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com<<<<

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 23, 2003 1:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.recordnet.com/daily/news/articles/012303-gn-2.php

Staffer tells riveting tale of intrigue, fear

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, January 23, 2003

A secretary took the witness stand Wednesday to testify against a 22-year-old Sacramento woman accused of murdering the attorney for whom they both worked -- a boss the secretary said she never saw.

Sarah Dutra, the former university art student accused of killing Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney, listened stoically as Ginger Miller, 27, told a San Joaquin County jury she feared for her life near the end of the four months she worked for the law offices of Larry McNabney and Associates. Miller said she saw no one but Dutra and McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, who seemed to run the office.

Miller testified that Dutra and Sims -- whom Miller knew as Elisa McNabney -- forged McNabney's name on checks, cashed them and told conflicting stories "countless times" about his whereabouts in the weeks after a horse show in Industry, where authorities contend he was killed.

McNabney disappeared from the Los Angeles County horse show in September 2001. Authorities theorize that Sims and Dutra poisoned him with horse tranquilizer there, drove home with his body and stuffed it into a refrigerator at Sims and McNabney's Woodbridge home.

His body was discovered in February in a vineyard north of Linden. According to a statement signed by Sims, she buried him there in January 2002 shortly before fleeing California. She eluded authorities until she was arrested in Florida on March 19. After signing incriminating statements, she hanged herself in a Florida jail cell.

Sims hired Miller in September 2001, shortly before the Industry horse show.

By December 2001, Miller testified, she so feared Dutra and Sims that she warned friends and family to alert police if anything happened to her.
::: Advertisement :::

Miller's duties included running errands to the bank, where she cashed checks signed by Sims or Dutra in McNabney's name. She retrieved $1,000 to $2,000 each week, she testified.

As fall lengthened with no sign of McNabney, Miller testified, Dutra and Sims spent money on clothes, shoes and cars. Miller's suspicions about the pair soared when, in late November 2001, her paycheck bounced.

"I got into an argument with Sarah," Miller said. "I said, 'A hungry mouth talks.' I told her that I was going to the police and tell them about ... all the money of Larry's that they were spending."

After that comment, Sims began inviting her to join the pair at parties in remote locations and at holiday celebrations, Miller said, but she refused to join them.

"I didn't know what they did to Larry," she said. "I wasn't feeling safe."

Dutra freely offered excuses as to McNabney's whereabouts that fall, Miller said. But though McNabney's name was on the office door, the office stationery and Miller's paychecks, Miller never met him.

"They talked about him like he was alive almost every single day," she told the jury.

Dutra explained that McNabney was golfing, at a religious retreat or at a rehabilitation clinic, Miller said. After the law firm was shut down and the office moved into Sims and McNabney's Woodbridge home, Miller said, Dutra's stories conflicted with those Sims told.

"One day ... Sarah told me that he was skiing, and Elisa told me he was golfing, and then I went out into the garage and saw the skis against one wall and the golf clubs against the other," she said.

She described Dutra and Sims as "best friends" who regularly shopped and partied, smoking marijuana and taking nitrous oxide and "blue and white pills" used to control their weight.

They spent so much time together that Sims' daughter, then 16, was jealous, Miller said. Miller also testified that Dutra, who shared an apartment with Sims' daughter, Haylei Jordan, created a secret boyfriend to disguise the amount of time Dutra spent at Sims' home in Woodbridge.

Outside the presence of the jury, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bernard Garber refused to admit evidence that McNabney caught Dutra and Sims "in bed together" into evidence. Garber also denied a defense request to recuse the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office from the case on the grounds the office violated a gag order Garber imposed last year.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 28, 2003 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dutra witness toughs out blistering cross-examination
Defense uses theatrical background in bid to discredit secretary

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, January 24, 2003

The woman who reported Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney missing testified Thursday that she occasionally acts in community theater murder mysteries, most recently in the role of a judge dosed by a poisoner's hand.

Ginger Miller, 27, tolerated the blistering cross-examination by noted Sacramento defense attorney Kevin Clymo, who used Miller's theatrical background to raise doubts about her credibility to the San Joaquin County jury charged with deciding the fate of Clymo's client, 22-year-old Sarah Dutra.

Dutra is accused of acting in concert with McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, in his September 2001 death. McNabney disappeared from a Los Angeles County horse show that month. Authorities theorize that Sims and Dutra poisoned him with horse tranquilizer while at the horse show, drove home with his body and then stuffed it into a refrigerator at Sims' and McNabney's Woodbridge home.

Sims hired Miller as a secretary for McNabney's law firm in September 2001. Miller testified she took orders from Sims and Dutra until January 2002, when Sims fled the state.

Prosecutors say Dutra and Sims covered up McNabney's death during the fall and winter of 2001 while spending thousands of dollars on cars, clothes and trips. During that time, Miller testified, she became suspicious and, unbeknownst to Sims and Dutra, reported McNabney missing.

After fleeing California, Sims led authorities on a nationwide chase until her arrest in Florida in March. She killed herself in her jail cell after signing statements admitting her guilt in McNabney's death and incriminating Dutra.

On Thursday, Clymo grilled Miller, questioning why she had not informed police earlier about her suspicions that
McNabney was missing.

"As soon as I knew that Larry was not around for sure, ... I notified the police," Miller said.

Clymo also asked about television interviews Miller gave to local media and elicited testimony that she has been involved in interactive dinner theater for more than 18 months. And in an attempt to cast doubt upon her testimony, Clymo asked Miller if she had ever portrayed witnesses in the improvisational theater.

"Most of the time, I'm the person who died," Miller said.

Most recently, said Miller, she portrayed one of three murdered judges -- killed by a dose of poison.

The serious mood of the courtroom lightened as jurors, attorneys and spectators laughed.

Refusing to back down from earlier statements, Miller repeated she feared for her life during the the fall of 2001.

After a paycheck bounced, Miller said, she called Sims' daughter, Haylei Jordan, asking when she would be paid. That evoked a vituperative phone call from Sims.

"She cussed me out for a long period of time. She called me every name in the book," Miller said. "She told me not to call her daughter and harass her about a paycheck. ... I said, 'That's fine. Maybe I'll go to the police.' ... She said ... "You ... mind your own business.' "

Miller said she continued to work for the law firm to protect herself from Sims' wrath.

"I also felt that (if I quit), since I told her I would go to the police, ... my life would be in jeopardy," Miller said.

She said she was afraid to ask questions of Sims and Dutra. And she said she called authorities in January when she suspected Sims was preparing to run. That day, she said, Sims called to ask Miller if she had reported McNabney missing.

Clymo asked if she had answered Sims truthfully.

"No, of course not," Miller snapped. "So that she could come and kill me as she violently killed Larry? No."

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.recordnet.com/daily/news/articles/013003-gn-1.php

'Black widow's' daughter testifies
Jordan tells of events leading up to lawyer's death

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, January 30, 2003

The daughter of a woman who allegedly killed her husband testified Wednesday in the murder trial of a Sacramento college student accused of taking part in the crime.

Haylei Jordan, 18, testified Wednesday in San Joaquin County Superior Court against Sarah Dutra, the best friend of Jordan's mother, Laren Sims. Dutra is accused of murdering Sims' husband, Larry McNabney -- a charge Sims avoided when she hanged herself in a Florida jail.

Steely eyed and clear-voiced, Jordan endured hours of questions about her observations of Dutra's relationship with her mother, her lifestyle and events during the fall of 2001. Authorities investigating the sensational "black widow" case say that's when Dutra and Sims poisoned McNabney and stashed his body in a refrigerator at Sims' Woodbridge home.

Sims asked Jordan to buy marijuana for her, asked her to forge McNabney's names on documents and told her varying stories about McNabney's whereabouts before leaving California in January 2002. That's when Jordan and Dutra packed up Sims' horse trailer with belongings so that they could begin a new life in Arizona after attending a horse show there.

The two traveled in caravan with Greg Whalen, a Clements man who was a close friend of the McNabneys, Jordan testified. After arriving at the show, Whalen received a phone call from his wife, who told him authorities had begun inquiring into McNabney's disappearance and Sims' whereabouts.

Whalen told Sims about the phone call, Jordan said, and her mother borrowed $300 from him, climbed into her red Jaguar and bolted from the horse show, her adolescent daughter in tow. It took two months, but authorities eventually tracked Sims to Florida, where she was arrested.

Jordan testified that her mother arranged for her to fly to Maine on Sept. 1, 2001, just 10 days before authorities say Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney at a City of Industry horse show. When Jordan returned to California, Sims told her that McNabney was gone.

"She said that they had decided to end their marriage and ... that he had gone back to his religious cult in Washington," Jordan said.

And she said Dutra never voiced concern over his whereabouts.

"It was understood that he wasn't a good person, that he had mistreated my mother and that she (Dutra) was glad he was gone," Jordan said.

Sims committed suicide in a Florida jail, leaving letters admitting guilt for McNabney's death and implicating Dutra. Sims said in signed statements that she and Dutra had attempted to bury his body at Yosemite National Park, but the ground was too hard, so they brought him back to the McNabney home in Woodbridge.

"After we arrived home, Larry McNabney wanted to sleep upstairs," Sims said in her statement. "His face was drooping, and one of his hands was cramped. During the evening, before he fell asleep, I told him I was going to call Poison Control. He told me not to call."

According to her statement, when Sims awoke the next morning, McNabney was dead on the floor. She wrote that she and Dutra wrapped his body in a sheet, bound it with duct tape and put him in a refrigerator in the garage, where he remained for several months.

In interviews last year with San Joaquin County investigators, court documents say, Dutra corroborated portions of Sims' story. She has denied an active role in McNabney's killing.

Defense attorney Kevin Clymo showed Jordan a small notebook that Jordan testified belonged to Dutra. Within the pages of the book, Jordan read aloud a small note written, she said, in her mother's handwriting. The note read: "Did Cal wrap bloody blanket around him?"

"Why in the world would your mother write (this?)" Clymo asked.

"I don't claim to know why my mom did the things she did," Jordan said.

After the court proceedings, Jordan's attorney, Thomas Hogan, escorted her from the courthouse.

"We're just glad it's over for her," he said. "She's relieved and just wants to put this behind her and get on with her life. She's in college now, and she's got a job. And today was her 18th birthday. It's a day of demarcation for her."

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Law office worker testifies in Dutra trial
Clerk says defendant, Sims were 'like sisters'

By Joe Tone
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, February 1, 2003

In the 12 months before she allegedly poisoned and buried her husband and then darted to Florida, Laren Sims lied about who she was, complained she wanted her husband dead and bragged that she could have him killed, a clerk at the couple's law office testified in court Friday.

The clerk, along with other witnesses, also painted a picture of a mischievously bonded twosome, detailing a relationship between Sims and her alleged accomplice, Sarah Dutra. A former Sacramento State college student, Dutra is on trial for allegedly helping murder Sims' husband, Larry McNabney.

Steffanie Campos, who worked at McNabney's Sacramento law office during the first few months of 2001, testified that Sims grew frustrated with her husband and, in the course of a normal conversation, "said she'd like to have him killed."

"She said that she was very angry and that she wished that he was dead," Campos testified. "There were people that could kill him," Sims allegedly told Campos.

Campos said she thought Sims was "just blowing off steam." But six months later, in mid-September, authorities say Sims and Dutra, now 22, poisoned McNabney at a Southern California horse show and stashed his body in a refrigerator. Sims then reportedly buried the body in a Clements vineyard.

As authorities began to ask questions, Dutra returned to Sacramento, while Sims and her teenage daughter fled east in a red, convertible Jaguar.

Sims was later arrested in Florida, where she hanged herself in jail and left behind a written confession implicating Dutra in the crime.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa asked Campos to characterize the relationship between Dutra and Sims.

Campos said she met Dutra only a couple of times but said Dutra and Sims spoke often on the phone when Dutra was studying in Italy. She said they were "like sisters," very "buddy-buddy."

Liisa Niemi, a receptionist at a hair salon frequented by the pair, also said the two were "like best friends, laughing and giggling." Jonathan Ricketts, a personal banker at the Bank of America branch where McNabney's firm held its money, agreed that Sims and Dutra acted "like best friends."

Ricketts also testified that he once refused to take a check made out to Dutra because it was unsigned.

Dutra then exited the bank and returned minutes later, the check then bearing what looked like McNabney's signature. Ricketts said he declined the check because he believed it was forged.

The firm's bank account hovered around zero for the year leading up to McNabney's disappearance, and the bank lost money from its relationship with the firm, Ricketts testified.

Campos said she got along well with Sims at first, but that Sims eventually began to act "odd."

Sims, the firm's office manager, would tell clients she was an attorney or that she was someone else, Campos said. She also said Sims promised her a car, cell phone and computer, none of which she ever produced.

McNabney was in the office only twice in more than two months, she testified.

Campos said the relationship turned sour when she began asking Sims why no taxes were being taken from her paycheck. Campos suggested she contact the IRS and shortly after, in March 2001, she arrived to work to find the doors locked, the locks changed and the office completely shut down. She never worked there again.

* To reach reporter Joe Tone,
phone 546-8272 or e-mail jtone@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 11:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sims' friend testifies in Dutra trial

By Joe Tone
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, February 5, 2003

A close friend of the woman who allegedly poisoned her husband and buried his body was steadfast Tuesday in his ignorance of what happened in the days prior to the man's disappearance and in the months that followed.

Greg Whalen was a friend of Larry McNabney and his wife, Laren Sims, and he spent time with McNabney the day before he disappeared from a Southern California horse show Sept. 11, 2001.

Authorities say Sims and 22-year-old Sarah Dutra, a clerk at McNabney's law office, poisoned McNabney with a horse tranquilizer and later buried him in a vineyard east of Stockton. Sims killed herself in a Florida jail. Dutra is on trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court for murder.

Whalen kept horse tranquilizer in his horse trailer, and the shovels authorities say were used to bury McNabney were found on his Clements ranch.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Whalen was straightforward in his presentation, and quick and even-tempered with every response.

He began his daylong testimony by detailing events at the Southern California horse show. He said he and his daughter drove to the show in his white truck as McNabney and Sims followed behind. Dutra, he said, arrived later.

On Sept. 9, 2001, McNabney was excited about his performance at the show and was considering traveling to East Coast shows, Whalen testified.

But that night, Whalen said a simple dinner at an Olive Garden restaurant erupted into name-calling. McNabney was falling-down drunk, he said, and exchanged expletives with Dutra at the dinner table.

The next night, McNabney failed to show for another scheduled dinner. The next morning, as the rest of the world watched the World Trade Center buildings collapse, Sims announced that McNabney had left in the middle of the night, fleeing to join a Washington cult after the two had a tiff.

It was later that day that Whalen said he first saw the shovels in his trailer but said he thought nothing of it.

Witnesses have testified seeing Dutra and Sims fleeing the horse show with the shovels and a wheelchair in the back of McNabney's red pickup later on Sept. 11. Authorities believe the women moved McNabney to the truck with the rented wheelchair and drove to Yosemite to bury the body, but the ground was too hard and McNabney was still alive.

So, authorities say, Sims stashed the body in a refrigerator at her Woodbridge home and later buried her in a Linden vineyard. The refrigerator was later moved to Whalen's home as a gift from Sims to his ranch workers, Whalen said.

"We didn't know Larry (had been) in the refrigerator," Whalen said.

In the months that followed McNabney's disappearance, Whalen saw Sims and Dutra at other horse shows, he testified, but asked few questions about McNabney's whereabouts, assuming the story of him joining a cult was true.

"Larry had told me he had been in a cult," Wahlen testified.

He denied seeing Sims at an Arizona show in January, the show Sims allegedly fled after hearing that authorities were asking questions about her.

* To reach reporter Joe Tone,
phone 546-8272 or e-mail jtone@recordnet.com
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benn



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PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/020603/news/articles/020603-gn-5.php

McNabney felt poisoned, witness says

By Joe Tone
Record Staff Writer
Published Thursday, February 6, 2003

Sacramento attorney Larry McNabney appeared sick and felt he was "being slowly poisoned" the week before he disappeared from a Southern California horse show, a Sacramento woman testified Wednesday.

Marie Gibson, who helps run an automotive-detail shop frequented by McNabney, said McNabney's skin was peeling, and his eyes looked weak when he came to the Sacramento business the week before the September 2002 horse show.

"I said, 'Larry ... you look sick to me today?' " Gibson told the jury.

" 'I am sick. I don't feel good ...' " she said McNabney told her.

" 'I feel like I'm being slowly poisoned. ... I feel like they're killing me.' "

Gibson's teary-eyed testimony in Stockton's Superior Court painted a picture of McNabney dying slowly and painfully in the days before he embarked on a road trip with his wife.

It was a picture slightly different from that painted by sheriff's investigators who have long said Sarah Dutra, 22, and McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, used horse tranquilizer to kill McNabney at the City of Industry show.

Dutra alone is on trial for murder, accused of helping Sims transport McNabney's body from Southern California and store it in a refrigerator at Sims' Woodbridge home. Sims, according to law enforcement officials, later buried the body in a nearby vineyard and fled to Florida, where she hanged herself while in jail.

McNabney's body was found Feb. 5, 2002, almost five months after he disappeared.

Sobbing on the witness stand, Gibson said she asked McNabney who was poisoning him, but he didn't reply. During their visit, she said, McNabney "could hardly stand up."

Her story followed a mundane and casual day of testimony, with friends and acquaintances detailing the days before and after McNabney disappeared. Friendly banter between witnesses, the attorneys and the judge had filled the courtroom with laughter not long before Gibson took the stand, causing a dramatic shift in the mood of the courtroom.

Some members of McNabney's family wept as she detailed the encounter; other relatives darted, sobbing from the courtroom as she described a sickly, scared and depressed customer.

"I said, 'Larry, promise me that you will go to a doctor,' " Gibson testified. "He said, 'I'm so sick.' "

McNabney usually brought his truck to the detail shop when he returned from horse shows, said Gibson, who will be questioned by defense attorneys at 9 a.m. today.

When he never came to the shop later that September, she said she called his phone, but Sims answered.

"She told me he had went to Texas," Gibson testified.

* To reach reporter Joe Tone, phone 546-8272 or e-mail jtone@recordnet.com
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benn



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PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2003 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dutra interview played

By Joe Tone
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, February 7, 2003

In the two weeks before the body of a Sacramento lawyer was discovered, the college student accused of helping kill him altered her story to authorities and appeared to tighten her grasp on certain details, a videotaped interview played in court Thursday revealed.

Sarah Dutra, on trial in San Joaquin County Superior Court for Larry McNabney's slaying, was interviewed by Sacramento sheriff's deputies twice in January 2002, a month before farm workers found McNabney buried in a vineyard east of Stockton.

In the second of those interviews, shown to the jury by prosecutors Thursday, Dutra recalled the sale of McNabney's truck and pinpointed when McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, fled an Arizona horse show -- details she said she didn't know when she spoke with detectives just 16 days earlier.

And, while she seemed frantic and unsure in parts of her first conversation with authorities, she was clearer and more confident with most every response in the follow-up interview -- even when detectives asked flat-out whether Sims had killed McNabney.

"I don't think so," she responded quickly, concern in her voice. "I hope she wouldn't do that."

Clutching her white lap dog throughout the Jan. 31 interview, Dutra detailed her every encounter with McNabney and Sims. beginning from when they hired her as a law clerk in 2000 to when McNabney disappeared from a Southern California horse show in the fall of 2001 and to when Sims left for Arizona in January 2002.

Authorities argue that Sims and Dutra were best friends who plotted to poison McNabney with horse tranquilizer, and who stashed his body in a refrigerator at Sims' Woodbridge home. Sims allegedly later buried his body, left for Arizona and then fled to Florida, where she hanged herself while in jail after being arrested March 19.

In both interviews with authorities -- the first of which was

played in court last week -- Dutra described McNabney as a flighty drug user who had probably just taken off, possibly to do heroin or join a cult.

She expanded her attack on McNabney in the interview played Thursday, alleging violence toward Sims and run-ins with prostitutes and underage women.

In neither interview did authorities confront Dutra about horse tranquilizer, a refrigerator or other details of the alleged killing. In the days authorities believe Sims and Dutra were transporting McNabney north from the Southern California show, Dutra said she returned to Sacramento to attend classes and work at McNabney's Sacramento law firm.

Dutra also told authorities she had begun to grow suspicious of Sims when a paycheck bounced and when McNabney never returned. "I just felt kind of weird about it," she said.

* To reach reporter Joe Tone, phone 546-8272 or e-mail
jtone@recordnet.com
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benn



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PostPosted: Sat Feb 08, 2003 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, February 8, 2003

Sarah Dutra's mouth dropped when confronted with the fact that authorities had found Larry McNabney's body in a shallow grave in Linden, a videotape played in court Friday showed.

The San Joaquin County jury charged with deciding Dutra's fate watched attentively the videotape in which San Joaquin County Sheriff's Detective Robert Buchwalter grilled Dutra just two days after McNabney's body was discovered.

"You are into this up to your eyeballs," Buchwalter said sternly. "It's not a game anymore. ... Did you hear what I told you? Larry McNabney was found in a hole. He's dead."

Dutra faces charges of murder and accessory to McNabney's murder, which authorities say happened in September 2001, when McNabney disappeared from a Los Angeles County horse show. He was poisoned by his wife, Laren Sims, and Dutra, who then drove to Woodbridge with his body, authorities allege. Authorities believe they stuffed McNabney's body into a refrigerator at McNabney's home, where it stayed for several months.

He was found Feb. 5, 2002, buried in a Linden vineyard several weeks after Sims fled the state in a Jaguar registered to Dutra. She was tracked to Florida, arrested and made statements implicating herself and Dutra before hanging herself.

If Dutra is found guilty of murder, and if the jury finds that the murder was committed by poison or for financial gain, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.

During the videotaped interview, Buchwalter pressed Dutra for details about McNabney's last days, accused her of inconsistencies and snapped at her repeated insistence of innocence.

When Dutra complained that details were hard to remember, Buchwalter interrupted: "Don't even go there, Sarah. You're not 8 years old with Alzheimer's."

McNabney's family grimaced as Dutra told Buchwalter she believed Sims when she said McNabney binged on drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Toxicology experts testified they found no such drugs in his system.

But as the interview unfolded, Dutra admitted she helped Sims rent a wheelchair in Southern California on Sept. 11 and helped propel McNabney through a hotel lobby, where he "started swinging his arms" wildly.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, he's insane,' " Dutra said.

She also admitted that she helped McNabney into his truck and got into the truck herself. She then insisted Sims dropped her off at the horse show grounds and drove off with McNabney, returning alone 30 minutes later. She never saw McNabney again, she said.

Dutra also admitted to renting a Mustang car for Sims in Santa Barbara that week, because Sims had decided to sell McNabney's truck. When Buchwalter demanded to know why Sims would sell a brand-new truck that still bore the dealer's license plates, Dutra had no answer.

"I'm starting to wonder if I don't know (Sims) as well as I thought I did," she said later in the interview.

Dutra said she earned $3,000 a month working for McNabney's law firm, though she had started out earning $11 an hour. After first insisting she never practiced signing McNabney's name, she later admitted signing it on her own paychecks "because (Sims) told me to."

"Do you know what that's called, Sarah?" Buchwalter demanded.

"Forgery," she answered.

She explained that Sims paid for her to purchase a BMW in September. Dutra then made monthly payments to Sims, she said, but later was asked to get the car financed.

"What kid my age is not going to want to drive a BMW if someone says, 'Here, I'll help you?' " Dutra asked.

And Dutra insisted she had been concerned about McNabney's whereabouts which, she said, had been explained to her in a variety of ways.

"I'm sick right now thinking that Larry McNabney is dead," she said.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 13, 2003 2:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More details on McNabney revealed

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Testimony offered Tuesday in Sarah Dutra's murder trial revealed new details about the death of a Sacramento attorney found buried in a Linden-area vineyard with horse tranquilizer in his system.

Dutra, 22, faces charges of murder and accessory to Larry McNabney's murder, which authorities say happened in September 2001, when McNabney disappeared from a Los Angeles County horse show.

Authorities believe he was poisoned by his wife, Laren Sims, and Dutra, her best friend, in a hotel room in the City of Industry. In the months after McNabney's disappearance, authorities say, Sims and Dutra covered for his absence at his law office, forged his name on checks and spent thousands of dollars on cars, clothes and trips to horse shows and other destinations.

Dr. Terri Haddix of the San Mateo County Coroner's office performed an autopsy on McNabney. The San Joaquin County Coroner's Office called on experts from other counties to assist with the McNabney murder investigation.

She testified that the body tested positive for xylazine, a tranquilizer generally used on horses. McNabney's blood contained 8 milligrams per liter of xylazine.

Haddix testified that xylazine -- a central nervous system depressant that also acts as a pain killer -- caused McNabney's death.

"It does cause problems with breathing," she said. "It also causes problems with the heart .... (and) a drop in blood pressure."

Dr. Roger Lajeunesse, a Fresno County forensic scientist who testified Tuesday, said McNabney's body had been buried for three to five weeks when it was discovered Feb. 5.

That's around the time that Sims fled California with her 16-year-old daughter, Haylei Jordan. In the weeks that followed, Sims zigzagged across the country, eluding police until her arrest in Florida.

Shortly after appearing in court in Florida, Sims committed suicide in a Florida jail, leaving letters admitting guilt for McNabney's death and implicating Dutra. Sims said in the statements that she and Dutra had attempted to bury his body at Yosemite National Park, but the ground was too hard, so they brought him back to the McNabney home in Woodbridge.

According to Sims' statement, when she awoke the next morning, McNabney was dead on the floor. She wrote that she and Dutra wrapped his body in a sheet, bound it with duct tape and put the corpse in a refrigerator in the garage, where it remained for several months.

McNabney was found on his back, knees drawn up to the chest and arms wrapped around the chest. He was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, Lajeunesse said, adding the body could not have been buried in the vineyard as long ago as last fall.

"It was quite similar to bodies I have worked on over the years ... that have been refrigerated," he said.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 14, 2003 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Witness reveals details
McNabney, Sims' pet name ironic

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, February 14, 2003

Larry McNabney and his wife, Laren Sims, used a pet name for each other that came from a classic 1962 movie in which one of the main characters was a psychotic killer, testimony revealed Thursday.

Evan Rees, a close friend of the pair, testified at Sarah Dutra's murder trial Thursday, giving evidence about the couple's relationship as it unfolded the last few years of Larry McNabney's life.

Dutra faces charges of murder and accessory to McNabney's murder, which authorities say happened in September 2001, when McNabney disappeared from a Los Angeles County horse show. He was last seen being pushed in a wheelchair. Dutra is alleged to have acted with Sims in committing the killing.

Rees told the jury charged with deciding Dutra's fate that McNabney and Sims called each other "Blanchie" -- a reference to the 1962 film "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

The 1962 psychological horror film starred Betty Davis and Joan Crawford as sisters -- Davis as a crazed former child star and Crawford as her paralyzed sister who endures Davis' mental and physical abuse.

"I remember they would both laugh about the part as to where (Crawford) was in the wheelchair, and she looked up at (Davis) and said, 'Why are you doing this to me?' " Rees said. "And (Davis) said, 'Because I can, Blanchie. I can.' "

"What happens to the person in the wheelchair?" Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa asked.

"She gets killed," Rees said. "She was poisoned. And then pushed down the stairs, I believe."

Testa hopes to convince the jury Simms and Dutra poisoned McNabney and then drove to Woodbridge, where he later died. The pair is alleged to have placed his body into a refrigerator at the McNabney home, where it stayed for several months.

His remains were found Feb. 5, 2002, buried in a Linden vineyard several weeks after Sims fled the state in a Jaguar registered to Dutra. Sims was tracked to Florida, arrested and made statements implicating herself and Dutra before hanging herself.

Rees also testified that up to a year before McNabney was last seen alive, Sims asked Rees if horse tranquilizer could kill a human.

"It caught me so off guard that I said, 'You mean a horse?' " Rees said. "She said, 'No, I mean a human.' I said, 'I would have no idea.' "

After court, Rees called McNabney "one of the best friends" he had.

"It was just tragic for everyone," he said of McNabney's death.

He also said he never saw McNabney use cocaine, heroin or prostitutes, as defense cross-examination has sought to establish.

"I do not understand where they come up with that," he said.

In other testimony, the foreman of a Sacramento County ranch testified he received from Sims the refrigerator in which authorities believe McNabney's body was stored.

Cipriano Rios admitted he lied to authorities when he was originally asked about the refrigerator but insisted he never helped dig holes with the shovels prosecutors believe could have been used to bury McNabney.

Under cross-examination, Rios insisted he was not instructed by his boss, a friend of the McNabney and Sims, to lie about where he received the refrigerator.

If Dutra is found guilty of murder and if the jury finds that the murder was committed with poison or for financial gain, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 17, 2003 2:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/021503/news/articles/021503-gn-4.php

>>>Dutra interrogator lied to elicit answers
Law allows tactics used by S.J. Sheriff's Office

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Record Staff Writer
Published Saturday, February 15, 2003

The lead detective investigating Larry McNabney's murder told a San Joaquin County jury Friday that she lied repeatedly to Sarah Dutra in order to coax admissions from the college student about the death of her former boss.

Deborah Scheffel, who works for the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office's homicide unit, said she told Dutra during a Feb. 23, 2002, interview that "nobody will make me believe that you signed on for murder" when Dutra became involved with Laren Sims, McNabney's wife and suspected killer.

The 52-year-old McNabney disappeared in September 2001. Five months elapsed before his body was found buried in a vineyard near Linden. Authorities allege Sims and Dutra poisoned McNabney at a City of Industry horse show, transported him to Woodbridge, where he died, and then stored his body in a refrigerator for months.

On Feb. 5, the body was discovered about 400 yards from Frazier Road. By then, Sims had fled the state, and Dutra became a key part of the investigation because of her close relationship with Sims.

McNabney and Sims raised and showed registered quarter horses, attending horse shows and rodeos throughout the West. Dutra worked at Mc
Nabney's law firm, accompanied the couple to the horse shows and, after McNabney's disappearance, forged his name on documents and checks, witnesses have testified.

Scheffel first interviewed Dutra on Feb. 23, and Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa is expected to show portions of the videotaped interview to the jury Wednesday.

To gain Dutra's confidence and establish a rapport, Scheffel testified, she lied to Dutra, telling the college student authorities viewed her as a witness who became dazzled with the high life but was too afraid of Sims to tell all she knew.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that law enforcement officers legally can lie during interrogations to elicit incriminating statements from suspects. The court, allowing that criminals often will not confess if they do not believe there is evidence against them, has stated law enforcement officers can deceive suspects in a number of ways, including:

* Falsely telling them that witnesses have identified him or her.

* Falsely telling them that material evidence, such as a weapon used, has been found.

* Falsely telling them that an accomplice has confessed.

Scheffel told the jury she had uncovered no evidence indicating Dutra feared Sims, a 35-year-old ex-con with a history of fraud, forgery and theft. She said she has used the same interview technique in past interrogations of child molesters and rapists.

During Dutra's Feb. 23 interview, Dutra recounted the events surrounding McNabney's last days, telling Scheffel that she helped bring McNabney from his hotel room to his truck. He was so incapacitated that he needed a wheelchair. Dutra told Scheffel she last saw McNabney only moments later as Sims drove him away from the horse show.

Later, Dutra changed her story, according to testimony during the preliminary hearing.

During that hearing, Scheffel testified that in later interviews, Dutra said she and Sims left the horse show with McNabney in the back of the truck.

They drove to Yosemite National Park, where Sims directed her to pull down a side road, get out of the truck and attempt to dig a grave with a shovel.

Dutra told Scheffel the ground was too hard and rocky to dig, and McNabney was apparently still alive, Scheffel testified in June. They eventually returned to the Woodbridge home, where Sims and Dutra then helped McNabney upstairs. Dutra spent the night at the house, and in the morning Sims told her McNabney was dead.

Testa is expected to play portions of the Feb. 23 interview Wednesday, when the trial resumes.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com<<<

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