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Trial of accused prostitute murderer
opens with grisly photos
CourtTV.com
Updated March 14, 2006, 10:18 a.m. ET
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — More than seven years
ago, Wayne Adam Ford walked into a sheriff's office with a
woman's severed breast in his jacket pocket and allegedly told
authorities the body part "was just the tip of the
iceberg."
Opening statements in Ford's trial began Monday, with
prosecutors saying the former truck driver is a vicious killer,
and defense attorneys pointing to his alleged confession as
proof he has a conscience.
Ford, 44, is accused of murdering four female prostitutes in
1997 and 1998.
Prosecutor David Mazurek told the jury that each victim was
raped, tortured and used for the defendant's sexual
gratification.
He showed the jury photographs of the severed breast that
belonged to Patricia Tamez, 29, whose body was found in the
California aqueduct.
"Wayne Adam Ford knows what he's done," Mazurek
said. "And he knows what he is."
Joseph Canty, Ford's deputy public defender, told the jury
that his client turned himself in because he had a conscience.
At the time, Ford was not a suspect in the unsolved deaths, he
said.
"He presented this gruesome piece of evidence that would
convict him," Canty said. "He decided the killing had
to stop."
Canty said Ford will not offer an insanity defense, but he
told jurors his client had a difficult childhood and was
depressed from a failed marriage and dwindling chances to see
his young son.
A judge has already ruled that most of Ford's alleged
confessions to authorities are admissible.
In addition to Tamez, Ford was charged with killing Tina
Renee Gibbs, 26, of Las Vegas, who was found floating in an
aqueduct; Lanett Deyon White, 25, of Fontana, found in an
irrigation canal; and a still unidentified woman whose torso was
found in a slough.
Blood and sperm evidence link Ford to the killings, Mazurek
said, and the unidentified woman's thighs and breasts were found
at a campsite where Ford lived for a time.
Article URL:
http://www.courttv.com/trials/news/0306/14_prostitutetrial_ap.html
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