Defense attempts to re-create alleged bedroom crime scene

Kim Smith

Wednesday, April 18, 2001 | 11:34 a.m.

When the jurors in the Margaret Rudin trial walked into the courtroom this morning they walked into Ronald Rudin's bedroom.

Well, sort of.

Rudin's defense team assembled an 11-foot-wide by 5-foot-deep model of Ronald Rudin's bedroom in the hopes of smashing the state's theory that Margaret Rudin killed her husband as he slept on Dec. 18, 1994.

The first witness to testify about the mock bedroom -- which came complete with bed, night stands and bed linens -- was retired Metro Detective Don Charleboix.

Charleboix told jurors this morning he found Ronald Rudin's third wife dead of a gunshot wound in the head and biological materials all over the walls, floor and ceiling of the room in December 1978.

The key witness, however, will be forensic scientist John Thornton, an expert in blood splatter evidence. Thornton is expected to say most of the blood found in the bedroom after Ronald Rudin, 64, disappeared is the third wife's and much of the rest of the blood can be explained through nosebleeds and rectal bleeding.

Prosecutors hope to convince jurors that not only did Rudin shoot her husband to death in his bed, but she decapitated him and burned his remains in a trunk at Nelson's Landing sometime after 8 p.m. Dec. 18, 1994.

Ronald Rudin's skull and charred remains were found by fishermen about a month later.

Rudin's defense attorneys, who started their case Monday, contend they will prove Ronald Rudin was not killed in his bedroom and his remains were not cremated at Nelson's Landing. They also have suggested someone else killed the multimillionaire.

Defense attorney Michael Amador suggested in his opening statements that Ronald Rudin's trustees killed him, and Amador's fellow attorneys have broadened the possible suspects to business associates and members of the mob.

If the defense attorneys can prove Ronald Rudin didn't die in his bedroom, they contend that alone will cast enough reasonable doubt to acquit their client.

On Tuesday, a friend of Margaret Rudin provided Rudin with an alibi for the hours of 9:15 p.m. Dec. 18 to 12:45 a.m. Dec. 19.

Jeanne Nakashima said she was depressed regarding the health of her boyfriend and talked with Rudin, 56, at Rudin's antique store for hours that night.

On the afternoon of Dec. 19, Nakashima said Rudin was quiet and upset.

"I said ... 'Your husband didn't come home last night? I hope he's not a wanderer like my last husband was,' " Nakashima said.

Under cross-examination, Nakashima said she helped form the Lady Justice Foundation, a nonprofit organization, in part to help Rudin, whom she visits often at the Clark County Detention Center.

She and another woman formed the organization "to be, as private citizens, more aware of the legal systems, its practices and how it treats people," Nakashima said.

When asked if she has discussed the case with Rudin, Nakashima said, "I've never discussed my specific testimony with Margaret Rudin."

That prompted Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Owens to ask her if she was reading a statement or if she had memorized her response to the question.

"I'm reading your mind," Nakashima responded.

Nakashima acknowledged she never contacted police about the alibi.

"And with good reason," Nakashima said.

"Would you like to hear my reason?" Nakashima asked a moment later.

Owens ignored her, but defense attorney John Momot gave her the chance to finish her answer.

"By that time I learned the detectives were working very closely with the trustees," Nakashima said.

Also testifying Tuesday was Barbara Orcutt, owner of the Mount Charleston Lodge.

Orcutt testified she became friends with the Rudins through Ronald Rudin's ownership of large pieces of land on Mount Charleston. She saw them once every two weeks, if not once a week, she said.