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A 65-year-old man charged in the 1989 fatal stabbing of a transgender woman in Santa Ana has stage 4 lung cancer and likely has only a couple of weeks to live, his attorney said Wednesday.
Douglas Gregory Gutridge of Lodi was moved from Theo Lacy Jail to an area hospital, where doctors say he is terminally ill, attorney Kristine Adams said.
“He’s been in the hospital for two weeks,” she told City News Service.
Jail staff “tried to treat him, realized they couldn’t and he went to the hospital where he was put in the ICU and immediately diagnosed,” Adams said.
“They’re guessing maybe a couple of weeks,” is how much time he has left, Adams said.
Gutridge is charged with killing 35-year-old Carla Leigh Salazar, a transgender woman stabbed to death in her Santa Ana apartment at 1609 N. Bush St. on June 29, 1989.
When Gutridge was charged, Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas declined to discuss a motive, but Adams revealed today that Salazar was HIV-positive.
Adams has been fighting in court to have the inmate released on his own recognizance since he’s “hooked up to a gazillion machines and can’t breathe on his own,” so he’s no flight risk.
The attorney wants the bail reduced because it would clear the way for visits from family.
“At least allow him to have contact with one family member before he dies,” Adams said. “His brother’s wife is dying so they can’t travel all the way down here to see him, and he can’t even call them to say goodbye. That’s why I’m trying to get (the release). All I want for him is to be able to talk to one family member before he dies.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin said, “We have made efforts and we’ve assured (the defendant) that his wife will be able to come see him… We’re trying to make sure visitation is not affected by his bail status.”
Adams is also frustrated that her client will not get a chance at exoneration.
“We never even made it to the preliminary hearing,” Adams said. “I was planning on winning at the preliminary hearing.”
Adams said the prosecution’s case is “beyond ridiculous. They do not have enough evidence. There’s no way they would have enough evidence to overcome extraordinary doubt.”
When Gutridge was charged in December 2014, police said advances in DNA technology helped make the cold case.
“That was baloney,” Adams said. “There were no new advances in DNA since the last they studied the case in 2008. I think Doug Gutridge has been victimized. He had to spend the last year and a half of his life thrown away in a dark cell, not being treated right or in the appropriate way and left to rot and die.”
The attorney added, “When Doug was arrested the truth was he was the last suspect left alive. All of the other suspects had passed away.”
Yellin said that’s “a ridiculous premise that does not deserve a response… If this made it to trial I could prove beyond a reasonable doubt he was the one who committed the crime and that is the only thing that goes into the filing decision and the decision to proceed.”
The prosecutor pointed out that many cold cases are closed “without a lot of fanfare” because the chief suspect has died.
“I’m looking at one right now,” Yellin said of a case recently handed to him by authorities to clear.
Besides, Yellin argued, a dead suspect helps the defense because prosecutors cannot impeach them in testimony.
Adams said two knives were used in the murder — one that was double- edged and the other a butcher’s knife. The defense attorney said her theory was that two people were involved in the killing.
“Absolutely it took two,” Adams said. “She was not weak, not frail, not small. She was a spitfire.”
Gutridge met the victim, who was a switchboard operator, while he made a collect phone call.
“They ended up having a conversation, met for dinner and had a few encounters after that,” 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.”
Gutridge and Salazar had a sexual relationship, but they also “connected on a friendship level,” Adams said.
Gutridge “is a good person. He’s good to the core,” Adams said.
Adams believes another transgender woman with whom Salazar had an up-and- down relationship was the culprit. Adams declined to identify that suspect, who has since died.
The next hearing in Gutridge’s case was scheduled for Sept. 20.
–City News Service
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