Orange County crime report
November 28, 2012Man ‘exploded’ in rage before killing, dismembering wife
By VIK JOLLY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SANTA ANA – The 39-year marriage began blissfully.
But the ups and downs of the relationship took their toll on a Rancho Santa Margarita man who “exploded” the night “he struck his wife in a heat of passion” with a one-pound nightstand figurine, not realizing he was hitting her head, the man’s attorney told an Orange County jury Wednesday.
Defense attorney Calvin Schneider said Richard Gustav Forsberg, 63, killed his wife Marcia Ann Forsberg, 60, in the early hours of Feb. 9, 2010, after the couple argued – but that it was not murder.
“He exploded when Mrs. Forsberg shuts him off” by dismissing her husband and turning away from him, Schneider said, telling the jury in Superior Court Judge William Froeberg’s court that his client is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not of murder.
After finding his wife had no pulse, Schneider said Forsberg wrapped her bloodied head in a towel, put her body in a bed sheet, placed her in an upstairs bathtub and put ice in it. He cleaned blood from the walls and the bedpost.
Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told the jurors what followed, events that Forsberg eventually described in police interviews months after the killing: He decapitated his wife, dismembered her body, kept her frozen parts in freezers he bought, rented an RV and then incinerated her body parts at a campground in Ventura County.
“He acted in the most gruesome and inhumane manner. He didn’t want to be married anymore” to a woman who had suffered from cancer and other medical issues, the prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement. “She was murdered by a man who was supposed to protect her.”
The childless couple had stopped having sex for a decade and Richard Forsberg frequented massage parlors, including one called “Happy Endings,” to have sex with prostitutes, Baytieh said.
After the couple argued on the night of the killing, the defendant thought Marcia Forsberg went to sleep, the prosecutor said.
Then, “in the most cowardly way, he murdered her,” he said.
“He didn’t just murder his wife, he didn’t just decapitate her, he didn’t just dismember her, what he left of her is this,” Baytieh said, showing jurors a blank overhead screen. “Nothing.”
Richard Forsberg left nothing of her body because he did not want to be held accountable for the slaying, the prosecutor said.
Baytieh showed jurors a picture of the shiny aluminum walls of the inside of a freezer in which Forsberg is accused of stuffing his wife’s body parts.
“This is as close to a coffin this murderer gave his wife of 39 years,” he said.
Investigators did not find any remains of Marcia Forsberg after searching a fire pit at Lake Piru in Ventura County.
Her husband took her ashes and bones and threw them away, the District Attorney said.
Schneider, the defense attorney, said his client decided to cremate his wife, saying Richard Forsberg took some of her ashes and placed them on a tree in Ojai, where she grew up. The defendant talked with his wife and apologized to her when he dispersed her ashes, the lawyer said.
Prosecutors said Forsberg hit her in the head multiple times with the small statue on Feb. 9, 2010. He kept her body at home and decapitated and dismembered it over the next few days, they said.
Prosecutors said that he then rented an RV, bought two freezers and drove to Lake Piru to burn the body parts. When friends asked about Marcia Forsberg’s whereabouts, the defendant told them they were having marital problems and she had left town to be on her own.
On Aug. 24, 2010, concerned friends reported the victim missing.
If convicted of one felony count of murder, Forsberg faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison. If found guilty of the lesser voluntary manslaughter charge, he faces a maximum 11 years in prison.
When police checked on Marcia Forsberg’s welfare and began asking questions in the summer of 2010, the defendant emailed a letter to detectives before attempting suicide, prosecutors said.
Much of the evidence against the defendant comes from his own interviews, Schneider said.
Baytieh played snippets from the hours-long interviews Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators conducted with the defendant.
In one taped scene, Forsberg clinically described how a bone saw caught his eye at a Huntington Beach hunting store and it was what he needed to saw a cold body.
“It is way difficult to cut through frozen bodies,” Forsberg said. The bone saw was just the right tool, he said.
Was it gruesome to decapitate?
“I was surprised at how easy it was for the most part,” Forsberg said. “She had been dead for more than 12 hours … conceptually, it was gruesome.”
You did all the cutting at one time?
He did some on Feb. 9 and the rest the next day.
“I took the saw with me in the RV to make pieces smaller to put in the fire,” Forsberg said.
Forsberg made hand sawing gestures for detectives and motioned with both his hands when describing the cuts he made: two for each arm, one for each foot, one for the head.
Contact the writer: 714-834-3773 or vjolly@ocregister.com
Flicked cigarette started fatal fight
By LARRY WELBORN / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SANTA ANA – A Dana Point man wanted to start a fight when he flicked his cigarette at a group of strangers in the aftermath of a crowded New Year’s Eve party at a Costa Mesa hotel, an Orange County prosecutor told a jury Wednesday.
Adam Randy Baker, 23, then cursed at, shoved and fatally stabbed Robert Sickles, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran and Mission Viejo resident, in front of the Hilton hotel in the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2011, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said.
Sickles’ friends came to his aid after the stabbing, punching and kicking Baker into unconsciousness, Murphy said in his opening statement of Baker’s murder trial. But the retaliation came after Baker provoked the fight, pulled out his knife and started stabbing, Murphy insisted.
Defense attorney Gary Pohlson reserved his opening statement until the defense phase of the jury trial starts before Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno. But Pohlson said later the evidence will show that Baker acted in self-defense.
Baker is charged with murder, attempted murder and use of a knife. He faces a maximum prison term of 23-years to life in prison if convicted.
Sickles and his group attended the New Year’s Eve bash separate from Baker and his friends, Murphy said, and there was “zero” interaction between the factions until Baker flicked his cigarette as thousands of people were leaving the party shortly before 2 a.m.
After Sickles commented, “Dude, relax,” Baker escalated the confrontation by first pushing and then slashing and stabbing Sickles in the chest, Murphy said. And when Brian McTiegue, Sickles’ friend, tried to intervene, he was stabbed in the back, Murphy contended.
Sickles’ friends then pummeled Baker, Murphy added, and Sickles got in the last blow with a kick to the face as he was bleeding to death from the stab wound in his aorta.
More than 60 people watched the beginning of the trial from the courtroom gallery, including dozens of relatives and friends of both the victim and the defendant. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
Man dies after being struck by vehicle in Newport Beach
NEWPORT BEACH – A man died Tuesday night after being struck by a car in Newport Beach, authorities said.
About 7:40 p.m., officers responded to reports of a vehicle striking a pedestrian on San Joaquin Hills Road, between MacArthur Boulevard and San Miguel Drive.
The male pedestrian was taken to a hospital, police said.
Orange County Coroner’s Department said the man died at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Authorities are not releasing his name until his family is notified of the death.
The driver of the vehicle that struck the pedestrian reportedly remained at the scene, and no immediate arrests or citations were reported.
Authorities are asking anyone who witnessed the accident to call the Newport Beach Police Department at 949-644-3711.
O.C.-bound plane crashes on L.A. campus
By COURTNEY PERKES / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
A small aircraft bound for John Wayne Airport made an emergency landing Sunday afternoon on a soccer field at Cal State Northridge.
No serious injuries were reported, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.
An unidentified male pilot and female passenger departed from Novato in a Cessna 206. They were on their way to Orange County when the aircraft lost engine power over the San Fernando Valley, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.
Gregor said the pilot tried to reach the Van Nuys Airport but instead made a forced landing on a grass soccer field at about 3:10 p.m.
The plane crashed through a fence and flipped over onto the sidewalk of a residential street.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.
Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said a small fire was quickly extinguished.
The passengers exited the plane on their own, he said. They were taken to a hospital with mild to moderate injuries.
Man arrested in wire thefts
By SEAN EMERY/ THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
IRVINE – A man suspected of trying to steal copper wire from an Irvine construction site and taking part of a communication system from an Irvine high school was arrested Wednesday at his Buena Park home.
Officers shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday were called to an Irvine Ranch Water District construction site off Riparian Way after a security guard noticed a man wearing dark clothing who had run away after being seen, Irvine police Lt. Julia Engen said.
While searching the area, the officers found a backpack containing tools consistent with wire theft, a set of car keys and a type of headset used on the sideline of football games, Engen said.
The officers didn’t locate the man in dark clothing during their search, Engen said, but found a vehicle parked at a nearby church that had paper license plates and bolt cutters clearly visible in the car.
Detectives identified Brett William Vernon, 35, as the owner of the car. A search of his home Wednesday afternoon turned up multiple larger electrical wire spools, both empty and full, as well as insulation casings from stripped wire and multiple recent recycling reweights totaling more than $1,600. The investigators also found the remaining components to a $5,000 communication system that had recently been stolen from an Irvine high school.
Vernon was arrested on suspicion of attempted grand theft, possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools, and was booked into Orange County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail.
Engen said detectives are also investigating whether Vernon is tied to a pair of recent thefts at the same construction site, in which more than 20 spools of wiring were taken.
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