Richard Schave

The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, Esotouric and Professor Donald Johnson invite you to the Cal State Los Angeles teaching crime lab for an afternoon’s inquiry into the history and practice of forensic science in Southern California, in support of new research coming out of the Criminalistics Department.

Join us as the people who worked the cases share a fascinating journey through the investigations and prosecutions.

Taking its name from Perry Mason, the popular mid-20th century television series where such dramatic reversals occurred, in court proceedings, a “Perry Mason moment” is said to have occurred whenever information is unexpectedly introduced into the record. It changes the perception of the proceedings greatly and can influence the outcome. Often it takes the form of a witness’s answer to a question, but it can sometimes come in the form of new evidence.
Because of modern discovery requirements, Perry Mason moments are rare in actual American court proceedings. Both sides are largely aware of what the other plans to introduce as evidence, and lawyers largely prefer not to ask witnesses questions when they do not have a good idea what the response will be.

Two cases will be presented, both with Perry Mason Moments, both with bloodstain pattern interpretations, both from the multiple perspectives of the lab scientist-investigating detectives-prosecutors, both illustrating the upmost in prosecutorial ethics when those Perry Mason moments occurred.

Presentation #1: “How The DNA Database Brought Christina Burmeister’s Killers To Justice” with retired LASD Detective Sgt. Joe Purcell, LASD Homicide Bureau Detective Deputy Phil Guzman, the prosecuting Deputy District Attorney John Monaghan (Assistant Head Deputy of the Pomona Branch), and retired LASD Senior Criminalist Lynne Herold.

This presentation brings together a detective, forensic scientist and prosecuting attorney for a multi-dimensional journey into the investigation and prosecution of Christina Burmeister’s murderer, a case that hinged upon the 2004 passage of Proposition 69, the DNA Fingerprint, Unsolved Crime and Innocence Protection Act. This law requires felons to submit DNA to a statewide database.

On August 17, 2001, Christina Burmeister, 20, left her Cerritos home to attend a Cal Poly Pomona frat party. Before arriving, she was kidnapped, and her ATM card used at a bank. Burmeister was then driven up Highway 39 in Azusa Canyon, where her throat was slashed. Her body was found in her abandoned pickup truck, along with an abandoned plastic cigar tip, from which DNA evidence was extracted.

In 2005, James Winslow Dixon, a felon who had been released from prison in 1993, was tied to the crime through DNA evidence. He and several compatriots were then charged with the murder of Christina Burmeister.

Bloodstain patterns found at the scene were able to provide information about what happened during the murder and determine who was telling the truth: the three compatriots of the defendant who gave statements in an effort to avoid the death penalty, or the defense expert’s bloodstain pattern interpretation.

Presentation #2 the People vs Kyle Christopher Jacobs (aka “Why you should never feel bad about your housekeeping skills”) presented by retired Senior Criminalist Lynne Herold and the prosecuting Deputy District Attorney T. D. Pham.

The victim (a friend of the defendant) died of a single shot gun wound to the head, a large metal mallet lay near his body in the driveway of the defendant’s house. Was this a murder or, as the defendant claimed, a case of self-defense? What happens when a witness spontaneously testifies that the large metal mallet was first seen in a position other than depicted in the crime scene photographs?

Join us in the Cal State Los Angeles teaching crime lab for an afternoon’s inquiry into the history and practice of forensic science in Los Angeles, in support of new research coming out of the Criminalistics Department.

Presentation #1: L.A. Bombing with Mike Digby

Presenter Mike Digby recently retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after 34 years of law enforcement service and six years in the US Army. For the last 17 years, he was assigned as an FBI-certified bomb technician/detective on the LASD Arson-Explosives Detail. Mike has a wealth of international experience in the bomb disposal world; having conducted counter-IED training in Thailand, Israel, Germany, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Poland.

His first book, “L.A. Bombing,” is scheduled for publication in Spring 2016. He wrote it to answer that age-old question, “there’s bombings in L.A?”

Today’s talk focuses on a couple of interesting, yet less-publicized, bombings that have occurred in Los Angeles.

Presentation #2: The Making of a Serial Killer: The Corey King
Arson Murder Investigations with Ed Nordskog

In the spring of 2008, an unknown suspect entered the home of a 91-year-old grandmother in Altadena. The woman was later found beaten and stabbed to death, with her home set on fire. Six months later and eighty miles away, fire fighters responded to a structure fire in Lancaster. After the fire was extinguished, the bodies of a mother and three daughters were found strewn about the home. They had each been savagely attacked and beaten and stabbed to death before the fires.

LA Sheriffs Homicide and Arson detectives linked an 18-year-old male to both scenes using forensics, criminal profiling, and pure luck.

Join the investigation as we take this profile in front of a Death Penalty jury. It is truly an inside look at a developing maniac serial killer, and how he was caught before more innocents could be victimized.

ABOUT ED NORDSKOG: Ed Nordskog is an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He has been a detective since 1990, working specifically in the arson and explosives world since 1997. He has conducted over sixteen hundred fire investigations and as of this writing has personally arrested and interviewed over 250 persons who were convicted of fire setting and related crimes. He has testified in court as a recognized expert in this field on over fifty-five occasions. He has been consulted by prosecuting attorneys on death penalty cases involving arson and murder on three occasions. He has been personally involved in over twenty serial arson investigations. The author has a master’s degree in emergency services management and is certified as a fire investigator by the California State Fire Marshal and the California Conference of Arson Investigators. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Arson Investigation Course, the ATF Advanced Arson Investigation Course, the Forensic Fire Death Investigation Course, and numerous other arson investigation courses. He is involved in course development and teaches fire scene investigation, major arson case investigation, serial arson investigation, and arson murder/fire death investigation. He is a course developer and instructor for the state of California’s Arson and Explosives Investigation Course. He is an instructor for the state of California’s Homicide Investigator’s Course. In 2004, the author was named Arson Investigator of the Year by the International Association of Arson Investigators and Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the International Association of Special Investigations Units; both of these awards are for his work as the lead investigator on a massive arson for hire scheme, involving fifty-five burned properties. He has received over eighty-five commendations, awards, and medals throughout his law enforcement career related to successful criminal investigations. He is author of the books ‘Torchered’ Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists and Fire Raisers, Freaks and Fiends—Obsessive Arsonists in the California Foothills.