An Orange County jail inmate died at a hospital Friday morning while awaiting trial on charges of murdering a transgender woman in Santa Ana in 1989 with whom he had a sexual relationship.
Douglas Gregory Gutridge, who was married, was charged in the June 29, 1989, stabbing death of 35-year-old Carla Leigh Salazar, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer two weeks ago, said defense attorney Kristine Adams.
Adams had been trying since then to try to get clearance for visits to be allowed from family members, including the defendant’s wife in Lodi. She condemned prosecutors who allowed Gutridge to “rot” alone in jail before his death.
Adams said she had also intended to ask a judge to follow a physician’s advice to send Gutridge to hospice care.
Adams is adamant that her client was innocent of the murder, and had planned to argue there were two killers and that one of the likely culprits was another transgender woman with whom Salazar had a rocky relationship.
“Whoever killed Carla Salazar stuck around and tried to mutilate her body. They tried to cut off her leg post-mortem… It was a two-person job,” the attorney said.
Gutridge met the victim, who was a switchboard operator, while he made a collect phone call and they ended up meeting for dinner, according to the defense attorney.
Gutridge and Salazar had a sexual relationship, but they also “connected on a friendship level,” Adams said. “They were friends and Doug was stunned she had been murdered, so he called police to tell them he wanted to help in any way.”
— City News Service