Man convicted of killing wife despite evidence

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 8:43 a.m.

David Ruffa's reluctant entrance with his sister into court Thursday afternoon will be his last act of freedom for at least 10 years.

A Clark County jury convicted Ruffa of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and third-degree arson in the killing and burning of his estranged wife, 37-year-old Shao Lei Liu.

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

The jury's verdict came despite the fact that no physical or DNA evidence or eyewitnesses pointed to Ruffa as the killer. On the contrary, the only identifiable DNA evidence in the case was found under Liu's fingernails and was determined not to be Ruffa's.

The only piece of physical evidence that linked Ruffa to the crime was a fingerprint in the blood found on Liu's glasses in her car. Although tests couldn't show the print was Ruffa, the tests could also not exclude the print as being his.

The jury, however, was never told this due to a pre-trial ruling.

The jury did hear that Ruffa had asked a friend if he would kidnap Liu, and the same friend said a 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.

Ruffa's attorney, Bret Whipple, could only say he was "very surprised" by the jury's verdict.

Ruffa, who had been out of custody on $20,000 bail, sat stunned, slowly shaking his head as the jury foreperson read his fate. His sister, Jane DeLanter, who accompanied Ruffa to court, cried and tried to give her brother a hug, but was told not to by bailiffs and correctional officers who were handcuffing Ruffa.

The same jury will return Monday morning for Ruffa's penalty phase and decide whether to sentence Ruffa to 10 to 50 years in prison, 10 years to life in prison or life without the possibility of parole.

Senior District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski will sentence Ruffa on the kidnapping and arson convictions at a later date.

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. She was going to meet Ruffa, with whom she not only had a contentious separation since she left him 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.