Prosecutors try to link Rudin to trunk

Kim Smith

Wednesday, March 14, 2001 | 11:49 a.m.

Margaret Rudin's estranged sister told jurors this morning that the day before Ronald Rudin disappeared, she saw the steamer trunk authorities believe his body was set ablaze in.

Dona Robinson said she saw the trunk on Dec. 17, 1994, while attending the grand opening of Margaret Rudin's antique store, but never saw it again.

The soft-spoken Robinson, who bares a striking resemblance in voice and appearance to Rudin, also told jurors that her sister frequently complained about her marriage and purchased eavesdropping devices in the spring of 1991 so she could spy on him.

Robinson's testimony comes on the eighth day of Margaret Rudin's murder trial. A break is being taken this afternoon so the attorneys and judge can attend the funeral of longtime Las Vegas attorney John Fadgen.

Chief Deputy District Attorneys Gary Guymon and Chris Owens contend that Rudin shot her husband to death as he slept on Dec. 18, 1994, so she could get her hands on her portion of his multimillion-dollar estate. They also allege that she was in a rage about his latest infidelity.

The prosecutors allege that after Rudin shot her husband, she and an accomplice decapitated him, placed him in a steamer trunk and set it on fire.

Rudin's defense attorney, Michael Amador, told jurors he intends to prove that Ronald Rudin's trustees, who were also beneficiaries, had more means, motive and opportunity to kill the real-estate developer.

Ronald Rudin's skull and charred remains were found by fishermen 45 miles south of Las Vegas at Nelson's Landing on Lake Mohave about a month after he was reported missing.

Ronald Rudin's skull was identified through dental records, but DNA samples were not obtained -- a fact that Amador says shows how ineptly the case was handled.

Forensic experts are expected to testify they obtained a DNA sample for Ronald Rudin from handkerchiefs found in the master bathroom of the Rudin house. They used that DNA to verify blood found in Ronald Rudin's bedroom was his.

Amador maintains that Rudin was not killed in his bedroom and the blood is that of Rudin's third wife, who died of a gunshot wound in her head in the same bedroom in the late 1970s.

The attorneys started to lay the groundwork for the blood evidence Tuesday by calling the Rudins' former maid to the stand.

Marina Flores, with the aid of a Spanish-speaking interpreter, told jurors that she cleaned the Rudin house two Tuesdays a month for more than two years.

Flores said she often found bloody handkerchiefs in the master bathroom and would wash them along with pillowcases, sheets and towels that also had blood on them.

However, Flores said she doesn't think there were any bloody handkerchiefs for the police to find after Ronald Rudin disappeared. She also said she didn't see any blood on a portrait that hung above the victim's head.

According to prior testimony, Ronald Rudin slept in the master bedroom and Margaret Rudin slept in the guest bedroom and had her own bathroom.

On the Tuesday following Ronald Rudin's disappearance, Flores said, Rudin seemed to be upset.

"She was very sad. She was crying and she was saying something to me about the gentleman, but I didn't understand what she was saying," Flores said.

The language barrier became an issue again, later in Flores' testimony.

Flores initially testified that Augustine Lovato spoke to her in "perfect" Spanish while working for Rudin and he never told her the carpeting in the master bedroom was blood-stained or smelly.

However, later, Flores was reminded by Guymon that she told a grand jury in 1997 that Lovato couldn't speak Spanish.

Flores admitted her story changed after speaking to Amador two weeks ago.

Lovato is expected to testify Thursday that in the process of converting Ronald Rudin's bedroom into an office, he tore up blood-stained carpeting.

The former maid also acknowledged she doesn't want to get Rudin in trouble, saying, "I think she was a good wife and it's sad to see her in the situation she's in now."

Flores said she has also visited Rudin at the Clark County Detention Center.