A 74-year-old man accused in the oldest cold-case homicide prosecution in Orange County history finally made it to court Friday following multiple absences due to his medical condition.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin credited a recent City News Service report with spurring authorities to make sure Charles Edward Faith made it to a Santa Ana courtroom today. Using a wheelchair and dressed in hospital-issued clothes with bright yellow socks on his hands, Faith managed to tell a judge he would agree to a rescheduling of his case until Feb. 25, according to Yellin.
In the meantime, efforts will be made to try to resolve the case, Yellin told City News Service. If it can’t be resolved, discussion will focus on whether the defendant is mentally capable of assisting in his defense.
The murder victim’s daughter told City News Service recently that she would approve if prosecutors reach a plea deal with Faith and freed him from custody.
“He’s done seven years. They could reduce the charges, have him plead to a lesser charge, give him time served, open the door and push him out and make him take care of himself, which he can’t do,” said Christina Lonzo, the daughter of Christine Wariner, who prosecutors allege was murdered by Faith on Feb. 16, 1964, in Santa Ana.
Faith is being cared for in a jail ward of an area hospital, according to Yellin.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley found there was enough evidence six years ago for Faith to stand trial.
The body of the victim, the manager of the California Hotel, which was at 601 Main St. in Santa Ana, was found partially clothed in her apartment by a tenant who was attempting to pay rent, Yellin said.
“It was obvious she was sexually assaulted and there was a pile of dirt and pieces of a planter in her face,” Yellin said.
Investigators found four bloody fingerprints on top of Wariner’s door, indicating the killer was attempting to avoid leaving evidence on the door knob, Yellin said.
Authorities could not find a match for the fingerprints and the case went cold. About 40 years later, the evidence was run through a database automatically and came back with a match to Faith, who had been arrested for suspicion of drunken driving a couple of years earlier, Yellin said.
The fingerprint match, which was made in February 2002, is the principal forensic evidence because the semen found in the victim’s body had deteriorated too much for a DNA analysis, Yellin said.
Faith was charged with Wariner’s murder in 2007 after cold case detectives interviewed him twice.
During the interview with detectives, Faith allegedly said he had a split personality and that it was his “friend” Doug that killed the victim, Yellin said.
“I told them people with a split personality don’t know they have another identity so he’s (lying),” Yellin said. “He basically tells a story about how he was in her apartment and his friend Doug was with him and at some point he was unconscious from a blow to the head and when he wakes up she’s in this condition and he leaves. It turns out Doug is invisible and he’s always with him.”
— City News Service