A Family Business (42 page)

June—Dr. F. Warren Lovell, medical examiner and coroner in Ventura County, begins investigating Tim Waters’s death. He discovers that toxicological examinations had not been done on Waters’s fluids and tissues.

July 22—David pleads not guilty to a charge of soliciting the murder of his grandparents. Jerry and Laurieanne plead not guilty to charges that they stole body parts.

August 3—A preliminary hearing for Jerry, Laurieanne, and David begins in Pasadena. Its purpose is to determine if there is sufficient evidence to bring them to trial on the accusations.

August 13—On a related but separate matter, an auditor for the State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers begins auditing the preneed trust accounts at Lamb Funeral Home.

Throughout the summer and autumn a series of events allegedly occur relating mainly to David’s case. According to later testimony, David promises to pay one prisoner $2500 for false testimony. David also allegedly brings his mother and his brother-in-law in on the plot and encourages them to take an active role. David also allegedly asks the prisoner to help draw up a plan for murdering the deputy district attorney who is prosecuting his case, Walter Lewis. At about the same time, David also allegedly asks another prisoner if he knew anyone who would be willing to kill for money, listing as potential victims his grandparents, his former friend, David Edwards, and Prosecutor Lewis.

November 4—The Ventura County coroner issues an amended death certificate for Tim Waters listing the cause of death as “undetermined.”

December 18—Testimony ends at the Pasadena preliminary hearing.

1988

January 20—David, Jerry, and Laurieanne are charged with conspiracy to bribe a witness. They plead not guilty.

April 20—A Pennsylvania toxicologist, Dr. Frederic Rieders, who had been asked to examine Waters’s tissue, reports that he has found a fatal concentration of oleandrin in Waters’s specimens, thereby clinching the prosecution belief that Waters was murdered.

May 9—Municipal Court Judge Victor H. Person, ending the longest preliminary hearing in Pasadena court history, rules that there is sufficient evidence to try David and his parents on the variety of charges then pending against them. David also is ordered to stand trial on charges of assaulting three morticians and soliciting the murders of his grandparents and Prosecutor Lewis. The case goes to superior court and is assigned to Judge Terry Smerling.

September 15—A preliminary hearing before Judge Judson Morris Jr. on a charge that David conspired to murder Elie Estephan, who bought a cremation service David was interested in owning. Morris rules that the prosecution has probable cause to make the charge.

1989

February 6—David pleads not guilty to charge of conspiring to murder Elie Estephan.

June 30—Judge Smerling dismisses accusations of stealing body parts against the Sconces. More importantly, he dismisses the charge against David that he conspired to murder Elie Estephan.

July 6—Following his action of less than a week earlier, Judge Smerling dismisses another twenty charges against the Sconces, including accusations that they mutilated human remains, conspired to obstruct justice, conspired to remove body parts, and conspired to bribe a witness. Charges of removing and selling organs also were deleted, as well as accusations that Jerry and Laurieanne falsified death certificates.

August 30—At Judge Smerling’s urging, David pleads guilty to twenty charges. Smerling sentences him to a total of five years in prison. With time off for good behavior, David’s effective sentence is two and a half years.

1990

February 9—David is charged in Ventura County with the murder of Tim Waters.

October 1—A preliminary hearing begins in Ventura to determine if there is enough evidence to bring David to trial for Waters’s murder. David is nearing the end of his sentence from Los Angeles County.

October 10—The preliminary hearing ends. Judge Hunter orders David to stand trial for Waters’s death. The defense asks for permission to exhume Waters’s body to run additional toxicological tests, and the prosecution does not object. The case moves to superior court to be set for trial and is assigned to Judge Frederick Jones.

December 6—Judge Jones sets a trial date for February 6.

1991

January 14—Judge Jones opens a hearing on a defense motion to declare illegal the search warrant used in the raid on Oscar’s Ceramics. David’s lawyer contends that if it can be proved the warrant was illegally issued, everything that followed it would have to be dismissed under the legal thesis called fruit of the poisoned tree. After four days of testimony and argument, Jones ruled against the defense.

March—David’s lawyer files bombshell documents with Judge Jones showing that the additional toxicological tests—more sophisticated ones than those done by Dr. Rieders—show
no sign
of oleander in Tim Waters’s tissue. The prosecution asks for more time to conduct still another series of tests, but the defense presses for an immediate trial.

April 4—Faced with the prospect of having to go to trial without benefit of new tests, the prosecution dismisses the murder charge against David, clearing the way for his release from jail. David is free for the first time since he surrendered to authorities on June 8, 1987. He leaves California for Arizona.

Remaining convinced that David murdered Tim Waters, Prosecutor Harvey Giss vows to conduct additional tests and says he will refile murder charges if those tests provide evidence of poisoning.

At roughly this same time, a California appeals court rules that Judge Smerling acted incorrectly in dismissing the conspiracy to murder charges involving Elie Estephan.

June 5—David files a claim for $1.25 million in damages with Ventura County, claiming he was incarcerated for 178 days beyond his normal release time because of a “nonmeritorious” charge accusing him of murdering Tim Waters. The county had forty-five days to act on the request before David could file suit.

August 8—Superior Court Judge Robert T. Altman of Los Angeles County disqualifies Judge Smerling from acting in the case involving the conspiracy to murder charge. Altman’s decision subsequently was upheld by the court of appeal and the state supreme court, seemingly clearing the way for a future trial on the accusation that David conspired to murder Elie Estephan.

October 28—As of this writing, neither David nor his parents have been tried on any of the charges still pending against them.

Gallery

The All-American football hero turned Cremation King of the West—David Sconce, who was arrested for unethical funeral home practices and later pleaded guilty to having his adversaries beaten up. (
Photo by Stacey Gore
)

Jerry and Laurieanne Sconce, David’s parents. Laurieanne assumed control of the Lamb Funeral Home as her father, Lawrence Lamb, drew closer to retirement. She gradually pulled her husband and son into the business. (
Photo by Stacey Gore
)

Now the Pasadena Funeral Home, the former Lamb Funeral Home is now attempting to recover its reputation, which had been compromised by David Sconce’s improper business practices. (
Photo by Sara Englade
)

The Pasadena Crematorium, the Sconce-owned facility that did cremations for the Lamb Funeral Home. (
Photo by Sara Englade
)

Timothy Waters, the owner of Alpha Society, a rival cremation service. The cause of his sudden death in April, 1985, remains unknown, although the coroner has ruled that it was due to natural causes. (
Photo by Stacey Gore
)

LEFT
: Dave Edwards, an ex-football player who was hired by David Sconce to beat up his business rivals. (
Photo courtesy The University of the Pacific
)
RIGHT
: Tim Waters, after having been assaulted by Daniel Galambos and one other man in February of 1985. (
Photo by Stacey Gore
)

Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling, who took over the case against the Sconces. David and Jerry were arrested for multiple cremations, commingling of human remains, and other improper activities. Jerry has still not been tried on any of the charges against him. (
Photo by Stacey Gore
)