Attorney: DNA will exonerate husband

Thursday, July 14, 2005 | 9:27 a.m.

A defense attorney claims DNA evidence found under the fingernails of a dead woman will show her estranged husband was not her killer.

Brett Whipple said David Ruffa is guilty of nothing more than being involved in an "emotional divorce and saying things he didn't mean" and certainly not the murder of 37-year-old Shao Lei Liu.

Her body was found in her car in Henderson in February 2002.

Whipple said there is no evidence to suggest Ruffa was the killer, but instead plenty to suggest someone else was.

"The perpetrator is within the grasp of the police department," Whipple said. "Her (Liu) last dying act was a struggle, and under her fingernails is the DNA of the person she struggled with. That DNA is not David Ruffa's."

Prosecutors, however, allege that Ruffa did carry out the killing, and that he did it by himself.

The last time Liu was seen alive was when she left her job at the Gold Strike hotel in Jean about 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 7, 2002, and she was going to meet Ruffa, with whom she not only had a contentious separation since she left him in two months earlier but also a bitter child custody fight, prosecutors said.

She told her supervisor she was going to the Joker's Wild casino in Henderson to meet Ruffa and allegedly said: "If anything happens to me and I come up missing, David is the last person that I was with."

When she didn't return home, her father reported her missing. Her body was found on Feb. 17, 2002.

After three months of investigation following the discovery, police detectives concluded Ruffa met his wife as planned, strangled her and then tried to set her body on fire inside her car, according to the police report.

Ruffa was arrested in Frostburg, Md., on a warrant charging him with murder, kidnapping and arson.

On Wednesday, Sam Sandilla testified that Ruffa was a "good mechanic" whom he had allowed to sleep on his couch after his relationship ended with Liu. Sandilla said Ruffa said he "wanted to raise his son and wanted custody of his son."

Over time, however, Ruffa began asking Sandilla if he would kidnap his son, Sandilla testified.

Although at the beginning he thought Ruffa was joking, Sandilla said, "The last time he asked me, I could tell by his face and eyes he meant it.

Sandilla said that when he told Ruffa he didn't want to get involved in a kidnapping, Ruffa asked him if he knew anyone who would. Sandilla said he directed Ruffa to a homeless man, who also rejected the plan.

Sandilla said the day before he learned Liu was missing, Ruffa said he was going to meet her at the Joker's Wild Casino in Henderson, but returned four hours later saying she never showed up.

Sandilla said he didn't believe Ruffa and forced him to leave his home the next morning.

Ruffa is currently out of custody on $20,000 bail.