Rudin’s defense delayed

Kim Smith

Monday, March 26, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

Last week District Judge Joseph Bonaventure assured jurors that after a three-day break, the attorneys in the Margaret Rudin case would be better prepared and the case would proceed smoothly from now on.

He spoke too soon.

When prosecutor Gary Guymon attempted to call the mother of Augustine Lovato to the stand first thing this morning, defense attorney Tom Pitaro objected, saying he wasn't prepared to cross-examine her. He later argued that the testimony was improper, but told Bonaventure that if he wanted the testimony, "We're ready to roll."

Guymon gave Pitaro some time, calling a couple of witnesses out of order -- a locksmith and a former alarm system employee. In the end, Lovato's mother, Terri Hall, took the stand.

She was expected to help bolster her son's testimony of last week.

Lovato testified that he converted Ronald Rudin's bedroom into an office at the request of Margaret Rudin. That was before her husband's decapitated and charred remains were found near Nelson's Landing in January 1995.

During the conversion with Margaret Rudin, Lovato said, he saw blood on a portrait that hung above Ronald Rudin's bed. He said he removed carpeting and padding that smelled rank and had a reddish-brown crusty substance on it. The ex-felon also said he saw a similar substance bubbling in the master bathtub.

Today is the start of the fourth week in the Rudin trial.

Guymon and fellow Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens allege Rudin, 56, and an uncharged accomplice shot Ronald Rudin in the head multiple times as he slept on Dec. 18, 1994. They contend that Rudin and her accomplice or accomplices then decapitated their victim, stuffed him in a steamer trunk and set the trunk on fire.

Ronald Rudin, 64, was a successful real estate developer and gun dealer who had left 60 percent of his estate -- estimated to be worth between $8 million and $11 million -- to his wife.

The prosecutors believe Rudin killed her husband to collect her share of the estate and because she was enraged at discovering an affair he was having with an IRS agent.

Rudin's attorney, Michael Amador, said he intends to prove Ronald Rudin's trustees, who were also beneficiaries, had better means, motive and opportunity to kill him.

Amador and Pitaro contend Lovato's testimony was a fabrication, fueled by a $25,000 reward offered by the trustees. Two missing persons detectives with Metro Police testified they saw no blood although they were in the bedroom before Lovato.