Defense attorney says client is a fall guy
DOWNTOWN LA — Jury selection will begin on Wednesday in what is expected to be a highly-publicized capital murder trial against the man accused of raping and killing a Santa Monica woman more than three years ago.
Victor Paleologus, 44, has been charged with killing Kristine Johnson, 21, on Feb. 15, 2002. Johnson was found dead two weeks later. Her autopsy showed that she was sexually assaulted and died of strangulation, as well as blunt force trauma and other contusions. Paleologus faces the death penalty if convicted.
The trial, which is expected to last four to five weeks in downtown Los Angeles, will include close to 100 witnesses. A room full of potential jurors gathered at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Friday, filling out questionnaires given by the court, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
“It’s a complicated case,” Robison said. Johnson’s mother, Terry Wark, who lives in Los Gatos, Calif., said she will be present for part of the trial, and when she is not in the courtroom, she will have family and friends there on her behalf.
The high-profile murder investigation and Paleologus’ subsequent arrest garnered media attention across the country as police and volunteers searched for Johnson for more than two weeks before two hikers found her body at the bottom of a ravine in Laurel Canyon, a remote neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills. Her ankles were bound and she was covered in a sleeping bag.
Johnson disappeared after she told roommates she was going on a photo shoot in Beverly Hills with a man she met at the Century City Mall earlier that day. Paleologus used a similar ruse on at least eight other victims, according to prosecutors, who in 2003 convinced Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry to allow the other women to testify against Paleologus in front of a jury.
Close to a dozen women are expected to testify against Paleologus, and claim he tried to lure them by posing as a publicity photographer for a James Bond movie, or an industry executive. In most cases, Paleologus asked that the women show up to the photo shoots wearing provocative clothing, including black high heel stiletto pumps, a short black mini skirt and nylons, according to testimony during a 2003 preliminary hearing.
That clothing was consistent with what Johnson was wearing when she was found dead. Johnson also tried on the clothing at her 29th Street apartment for her roommate shortly before she went to meet Paleologus on Feb. 15, 2003, according to court testimony.
Two days after Johnson’s disappearance, Paleologus allegedly tried to buy a car at Beverly Hills BMW using the name, social security number and credit history of Robert Wasvary, who owns a home on Wonderland Park Avenue in the Hollywood Hills — just blocks away from where Johnson’s body was found.
But when the car salesman asked for more identification, Paleologus allegedly ran off the dealership lot with the car. He was arrested by Beverly Hills police after they chased him to the Beverly Center parking garage. There, he got out of the car and ran down Third Street and into the kitchen of sushi restaurant, where he was apprehended, according to police testimony in 2003.
Paleologus was taken to Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail at the Twin Towers facility, where he was held with no bail because of a parole violation. He was later charged with Johnson’s murder.
Paleologus remains in the central jail and is often bound with shackles, his attorney Andrew Flier told the Daily Press earlier this year. Initially, Flier had been retained by Paleologus as his private attorney. But last year, Flier was appointed by the court and is now being paid similar to a public defender.
Flier insists that Paleologus is innocent and the DA’s case is weak because it’s based on circumstantial evidence only. In the past, Flier pointed out that the prosecution has no scientific evidence linking Paleologus to the murder — no fingerprints were found her car, no blood or DNA was found in any of the places searched by police, or near her body.
Flier said he believes Paleologus is being targeted because of his criminal past. He has been convicted of six felonies since 1998, ranging from grand theft to burglary to assault. He was released from state prison on Jan. 20, 2003, just three weeks before Johnson’s disappearance.
Paleologus received three years probation after a jury deadlocked on charges against him in 1991 for attempted rape, assault and false imprisonment. In that case, he allegedly lured a woman into a hotel room after telling her she would meet famous people, including Madonna, at a party for record executives. Paleologus then allegedly tied the woman to a hotel bed and attempted to rape her, but she was able to escape.
Flier said those convictions were results of plea bargains Paleologus made and shouldn’t have anything to do with the capital murder charge.
As a three-time convicted felon, Paleologus is facing life in prison. In addition to the capital murder charge, he faces six counts relating to the Beverly Hills case, including identity theft, filing a false financial statement, burglary, grand theft auto, forgery and receiving stolen property.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 10, 2006. Read the original PDF.