Rundle hearing waived; murder suspect goes to trial

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

Attorneys defending a Las Vegas man accused of killing his wife with a baseball bat and fleeing to Florida waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday and will take the case straight to District Court.

Prosecutors also added a charge of robbery with a deadly weapon to an open murder charge against William Rundle.

Rundle's preliminary hearing was scheduled to take place in front of Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis. Bail has not been set.

His arraignment is scheduled for Nov. 27. Defense attorneys said he will plead not guilty.

Chief Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown would not comment on his reasons for waiving the preliminary hearing, but said the decision was for "strategic" reasons.

"It's not necessarily a case of whether or not we benefited from waiving the preliminary hearing, but what disadvantages we avoided by waiving it," he said. "We won't know if we made the right choice or not until later."

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz said he was surprised defense attorneys chose to waive the hearing.

"Usually the defense wants a preliminary hearing to get a flavor for what type of case we have," he said. "But it doesn't hurt or help our case."

When cases are not negotiated, defense attorneys waive preliminary hearings only about 5 percent of the time, Schwartz said.

The addition of the robbery charge came Nov. 12 in light of recent evidence that Schwartz claims proves Rundle "forcefully removed" Shirley Rundle's wedding ring, one or two watches and other miscellaneous items from her purse.

The bat that police said was used to kill Shirley Rundle is considered a deadly weapon, Schwartz said. He said he wasn't aware of any plans to add additional charges.

Brown objected to the amendment, saying it should have been filed more than two weeks ago. He said the wording of Schwartz's initial complaint suggested Rundle shot his wife and that prosecutors didn't add the robbery charge until the defense asked them to change the wording.

Schwartz said Metro Police and a team of private investigators are still collecting evidence, which will determine whether or not they decide to seek the death penalty.

Defense attorneys had planned to call to testify Dr. Ellen Clark, a pathologist from Washoe County who performed the autopsy on Shirley Rundle, and the detective who interviewed Rundle following his arrest, Schwartz said.

He said he also considered calling Shirley Rundle's daughter to testify, but decided he would wait to call her during the trial.

Rundle was arrested Oct. 12 in Orlando, Fla. His wife's body was found off a remote highway near Susanville, Calif. Police said he had been on the run for about six weeks.