Murder case goes beyond expectations for weird revelations

Kim Smith

Monday, April 9, 2001 | 10:40 a.m.

Most people considered the gruesome slaying and decapitation of Ronald Rudin bizarre enough, but that was before the trial began against his fifth wife.

Margaret Rudin, 56, is suspected of shooting her husband to death in his bed on Dec. 18, 1994. Prosecutors maintain she decapitated the real estate developer, placed him in a trunk and burned his remains near Lake Mohave with the aid of at least one accomplice.

Prosecutors allege Rudin didn't want to wait to inherit 60 percent of her husband's $11 million estate. Her lead attorney, Michael Amador, argues Ronald Rudin's trustees had him killed so they could inherit their share of the estate as well as Rudin's.

Rudin's trial has been filled with questions about Amador's competency, three mistrial motions and delay after delay after delay.

Originally expected to take four to six weeks, the trial is heading into its seventh week today, and the prosecution is still finishing its case.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure told them last week that he will give the defense a couple more days off to prepare for additional witnesses. Friday is also a holiday.

Prosecutors Chris Owens and Gary Guymon are preparing to wrap up the state's case, which they acknowledge is highly circumstantial. So far the testimony has revealed many of those circumstances.

The trial began with the testimony of Stephen Vermilya and Russell Dillon, who discovered Ronald Rudin's skull and charred remains near Nelson's Landing on Jan. 21, 1995, while fishing.

Dr. Robert Jordan told jurors that he found three .22-caliber bullets and two bullet fragments in Ronald Rudin's skull. He also said he couldn't tell if the victim had been decapitated by fire, an animal or a human.

Sheree Norman, a Metro crime scene analyst, testified she collected the human remains and what looked to be parts of a charred steamer trunk.

Leslie Petersen, an antique shop owner, confirmed the parts belonged to a steamer trunk and Bruce Honabach said he sold Rudin just such a trunk.

Honabach also said he grew so worried about Rudin's comments about wishing her husband dead, he told Ronald Rudin about them a few months before he died.

On day three of the trial, Rick Aker told jurors he sold Rudin nearly $1,500 worth of electronic surveillance equipment while working at the Spy Factory in 1991.

The jurors later learned the equipment was found in Ronald Rudin's office in March 1995. They also saw transcripts of telephone conversations written in Rudin's own hand.

In several of the entries, Rudin refers to her husband's affair with Sue Lyles, an IRS agent. Lyles told jurors that on the day before Ronald Rudin disappeared, he told her he was going to confront his wife about a letter he believed Margaret had written to Lyles' children revealing the affair.

Lyles said she never saw Ronald Rudin again.

Ronald Rudin's trustees also took the stand.

Sharron Cooper and Harold Boscutti, whom Amador has said also had a motive to kill Rudin, both testified they were shocked when they learned they were beneficiaries.

They also both denied taking part in any fraudulent land deals, as suggested by Amador.

Ronald Rudin's attorney, Patricia Brown, told jurors that her client had asked her to put a special directive into his trust. In it, he expressed his desire to see his death investigated and the responsible party cut from his will.

Brown said Ronald Rudin, 64, told her he feared his wife would try to harm him.

Rudin's sister, Dona Cantrell Robinson, spent a few days on the stand. She said she was with Margaret Rudin when she bought the bugging equipment and when she wiped her fingerprints off the equipment following Ronald Rudin's disappearance.

Robinson told jurors about her sister hiring a locksmith on Christmas Day 1994 and how Rudin went through Ronald Rudin's office, gathering up everything she could on his will and trust.

Robinson said she also saw Ronald Rudin's bedroom carpeting, bearing a stain, at another sister's home.

Augustine Lovato, a manual laborer, told jurors he had ripped up that same carpeting, because Rudin wanted to turn her missing husband's bedroom into an office.

Lovato said there was a dried, reddish-brown substance on the carpeting, on a portrait that hung above Ronald Rudin's bed and in the master bathtub drain.

Other witnesses testified there was a similar substance -- which turned out to be blood -- on box springs Lovato dumped in an alley at Rudin's request.

Jurors spent several days listening to testimony from forensic and DNA experts. They testified that the blood on the box springs and most of the blood found in the bedroom is consistent with the blood found on a handkerchief in Ronald Rudin's bathroom.

In addition to talking about the murder investigation itself, Metro homicide detective Phil Ramos told jurors that when he told Rudin the remains found at Nelson's Landing were her husband's, she dug her fist into her eye as though to make herself cry.

Carol Kawazoe told jurors that Rudin showed up at her tax business at around 2:20 a.m. Dec. 19 and asked her if she wanted a cup of coffee from 7-Eleven.

Kawazoe, whose business is within walking distance of Ronald Rudin's real estate office and home, had never met Rudin before. Kawazoe said Rudin made a point of telling her that she had been working all night at her antique store, which was in the same shopping center.

Kawazoe testified she hadn't seen the antique store's lights on at all that night.

Peter Price, a scuba instructor, told jurors he found what turned out to be the murder weapon near Pyramid Island on Lake Mead in July 1996.

The jurors also learned from two of Ronald Rudin's ex-wives that he liked to lie on the left side of the bed while sleeping on his right side -- which corroborates the testimony of experts who said the bullets entered the left side of his skull.

Rudin's alleged accomplice, Yehuda Sharon, also took the stand.

Sharon, who has immunity from prosecution, told jurors he rented a van the weekend Ronald Rudin disappeared. He testified he needed it to pick up holy oil bottles from California; prosecutors believe it was used to carry the trunk with Ronald Rudin's remains to Nelson's Landing.

The prosecutors attempted to prove Sharon forged a Barstow, Calif., gas receipt to help corroborate his story. The gas prices and other details on the receipt matched those found on 1996 receipts, not those on 1994 receipts.