LOS ANGELES -- More than eight months after the end of a bloody rampage that struck fear across much of California, the man accused of being the dreaded 'Night Stalker' was ordered to stand trial on 14 murder charges and 36 other felonies.
Richard Ramirez, a self-proclaimed devil worshipper, was bound over Tuesday following a 29-day preliminary hearing in which 143 prosecution witnesses testified.
Defense attorneys said Ramirez, 26, was looking forward to telling his side of the story after what was essentially a one-sided hearing to determine if the state had enough evidence to put the drifter from El Paso, Texas on trial in one of the most sensational murder cases in California history.
Ramirez, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit and bound in leg shackles, rapidly pumped his fist in the air and smiled as Municipal Court Judge James Nelson ordered him to stand trial for 14 murders, five attempted murders, 15 burglaries, five robberies, four rapes, three acts of oral copulation and four of sodomy.
The suspect, held without bail and facing a possible death sentence, was ordered to appear in Superior Court May 21 for arraignment.
The judge dismissed 18 non-murder counts, including allegegations of sexual molestations of three young boys and girls whose parents asked that they not have to testify at the preliminary hearing.
The defense rested its case without presenting witnesses. Defense attorney Arturo Hernandez said Ramirez told him moments after the judge's ruling that 'in a trial he'll have time to tell his side of the story.'
Attorneys said Ramirez eventually may plead innocent by reason of insanity.
The prosecution has refused throughout the case to comment on a possible motive for the slayings, including speculation that Ramirez committed the crimes as some type of satanic ritual or was driven by heavy metal music.
Among the witnesses were four women who positively identified Ramirez as the foul-mouthed assailant who raped them or tried to rape them.
Two other women identified Ramirez -- tall and lanky with shoulder-length brown hair and stained, gapped teeth -- as the man who slipped into their darkened homes and shot them during late night attacks that were the hallmark of the 'Night Stalker.'
Although authorities now believe the killings began in 1984, the string of slayings were not connected until the spring of 1985. The apparently random attacks caused a panic from San Francisco, where Ramirez is charged with a 15th 'Stalker' killing, to Orange County, where he is charged in a non-fatal attack.
Hernandez told reporters that Ramirez believed there were 'a lot of politics in the trial ... and that he felt confident that he won,' apparently referring to the dropping of several charges.
Ramirez was arrested last Aug. 31 when he made a desperate attempt to flee through an East Los Angeles neighborhood the day his picture appeared on the front page of the local newspapers.
Police credited the state's new computerized fingerprint matching system with identifying Ramirez from prints found on a car.
