Local News in Brief : 4 Witnesses Testify at Stalker Trial

In the first full day of testimony in the Night Stalker trial, three prosecution witnesses on Tuesday described the bloody scene they found at the Glassell Park home of Jennie Vincow, the 79-year-old woman who allegedly became Richard Ramirez’s first murder victim.

Jack Vincow, one of the victim’s sons, said that he found his mother in bed with her throat slashed and her apartment ransacked on the afternoon of June 28, 1984, when he dropped by to bring her some food.

A fourth witness, a Los Angeles Police Department fingerprint expert, testified that he lifted three identifiable prints from a screen frame and a window pane at the victim’s ground-floor apartment. Another prosecution witness is expected to testify today that two of those prints, made by a left thumb and a right index finger, belonged to Ramirez, a 28-year-old drifter from El Paso.

Ramirez, who was arrested Aug. 31, 1985, faces 13 murder counts and 30 other felony counts, including rape, attempted murder and forced oral copulation. He faces a 14th murder charge in San Francisco and attempted murder and sexual assault charges in Orange County.