LAKEPORT The lead detectives in an Upper Lake woman”s murder investigation took the stand Tuesday, describing their intensive search for answers and describing the day they found her remains.
Prosecutor Richard Hinchcliff called Detective Carl Stein of the Clearlake Police Department to testify Tuesday morning in the trial of Reno, Nev. resident Paul Smiraglia.
Smiraglia, 46, is accused of the July 2002 murder of his ex-girlfriend, 43-year-old Diedre Coleman.
Stein has been a fixture of the trial, sitting beside Hinchcliff at the prosecution table as the deputy district attorney has steadily presented his case.
Stein has been in law enforcement for 46 years, with 28 of those years spent with the Lake County Sheriff”s Office. After he retired from the sheriff”s department in 1998, Stein served in a part-time capacity with that agency, as well as the District Attorney”s Office, before joining Clearlake Police in the spring of 2003.
Stein, who estimated he has investigated more than 100 homicides as a detective, was on the stand for nearly three hours as he recounted working on the Coleman case, which he took over in April 2003.
For the better part of three years, Stein said, he worked the case. “And in some respects it”s still ongoing,” he added.
In searching for what happened to Coleman, Stein said he and James Bell, another Clearlake Police detective, interviewed 130 people in a “process of elimination”.
Stein said on the stand that he interviewed key witness Sharmon Hawley 11 times. Late last month, shortly before Smiraglia”s trial started, Hawley told Stein she was present during Coleman”s murder in Hawley”s former residence on Alvida Street in Clearlake.
Although Hawley”s late admission was not, as Hinchcliff said in court early on, “surprising” information, it was nevertheless information she had repeatedly withheld from Stein and Bell.
Stein testified Hawley who claimed she feared for her safety and that of her family denied knowing where and when Coleman was murdered, although she did accuse Smiraglia of the murder. She would also tell detectives Smiraglia told her that she would “go down” with him for Coleman”s murder if she talked to authorities.
Under cross-examination, defense attorney Doug Rhoades questioned Stein about those points, as he attempted to draw attention to a credibility gap between Hawley”s previous and present statements.
However, details provided by a list of other witnesses many of whom have already testified in the trial formed a cohesive trail that led Stein to Smiraglia. Several witnesses told Stein of Smiraglia”s comments or actions that alluded to his involvement in Coleman”s death.
With him on the stand Stein had a black three-ring binder that was about five inches thick, containing several hundred pages of evidence and narrative he has gathered in Coleman”s case.
On July 23, 2003, Stein and Bell interviewed Hawley at her stepfather”s house. They told her they had seen Smiraglia in prison in Nevada; Stein said she had “a complete breakdown” and told him, “I know where the body is at. I”ll take you to her.”
At that point, said Stein, Hawley admitted to helping Smiraglia dump the body because she was forced to, and she feared he was going to kill her as well. Hawley further told Stein and Coleman that she had a sexual relationship with Smiraglia to “keep up appearances” and protect herself.
Stein described the drive he and Bell took with Hawley to an area four miles south of the “Y” intersection at Highways 20 and 29.
With Hawley directing them, they drove out onto a remote road along a levy and came to an area overgrown with wild blackberry vines and other vegetation along a seasonal creek bed, set back from Cache Creek.
There they found a blue tarp with what Stein described as “a human form to it.” Stein immediately called Clearlake Police and instituted a “body site protocol,” which summoned members of the District Attorney”s Office and state Department of Justice.
Almost a year and a half later, in November 2004, Stein and Bell went to Las Vegas, Nev., to interview a prison inmate there who gave them information on the case. He told them Coleman had been killed with a hammer and that Smiraglia had tried to put a hit out on Hawley.
Bell testified after Stein, giving further details about aspects of the investigation including unsuccessful searches of the Alvida Street residence and searches of Hawley”s and Coleman”s vehicles, which did yield clues specifically, hair samples.
He described finding Coleman”s body, and cataloging and documenting the scene.
Bell said Coleman”s body while still wrapped in the blue tarp and yellow rope was placed in a body bag and transported to the Sonoma County Coroner”s Office for an autopsy, which took place on July 25, 2003. Present for the autopsy, Bell also recounted what besides Coleman”s badly decomposed body was found in the tarp, including black trash bags around the body and a cartoon beach towel. Hinchcliff produced the badly soiled and stained towel, in a clear plastic envelope, and asked Bell to identify it, which he did. Also in clear plastic was the blue tarp that shrouded Coleman”s body, which Hinchcliff asked Bell to remove from a sealed, brown-paper envelope.
A forensic dental examination helped identify Coleman, said Bell.
When Bell left the stand, Hinchcliff asked that several photos admitted into evidence be given to the jury for their viewing, which Judge Arthur Mann agreed to do.
After the bailiff out handed the photos, 10 silent minutes passed as the 12 jurors and one alternate perused the exhibits.
Once the jurors were finished and the photos resubmitted to the clerk, the jury was dismissed for the day. However, out of the jury”s presence, court remained in session.
Judge Mann told Hinchcliff and Rhoades that he was rescinding his order to allow the bloodied towel into evidence, and on the same grounds would not admit the tarp. He was concerned that both items constituted biohazards because of the presence of blood and DNA.
Mann further quoted a penal code section which stipulates that biological materials that pose a health hazard need to be retained by those previously in possession of them in this case, Clearlake Police and not stored by the court.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Superior Court”s Department 3.
Contact Elizabeth Larson at elarson@record-bee.com.
