Gag Order in Klaas Case Maintained
- Share via
SAN JOSE — The man accused of kidnapping and killing Polly Klaas made his first appearance Monday in San Jose, where his trial was ordered moved.
A judge confirmed a Feb. 5 trial date for Richard Allen Davis, who could face the death penalty if convicted. Superior Court Judge Jack Komar also kept in place a gag order he issued earlier this month.
Komar said there was a “reasonable likelihood” that the spread of information about the case from outside the courtroom “would interfere with fair-trial rights . . . and the administration of justice in a negative fashion.”
Davis, 41, is accused of kidnapping the 12-year-old Petaluma girl from her bedroom during a slumber party in October 1993 and strangling her.
The girl’s disappearance led to a nationwide search. Davis was arrested two months later and, police said, confessed and led authorities to the girl’s shallow grave.
In November, a Sonoma County judge ordered the trial moved to Santa Clara County, finding that intensive news coverage of the crime would prevent Davis from receiving a fair trial in Sonoma County.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
