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A 75-year-old man accused in the oldest cold-case homicide prosecution in Orange County history was freed of murder charges Tuesday because it was deemed he was not able to help in his defense.
Charles Edward Faith was charged in 2007 with the Feb. 16, 1964, killing of Christine Wariner in Santa Ana.
Efforts have been made since the beginning of 2015 to get Faith to finally go to trial on the murder, but his health issues made that impossible, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin.
“He’s not capable of participating” in his defense, Yellin told City News Service.
Faith was placed under the care of the Orange County Public Guardian’s Office. That could not happen with the pending criminal charge, so that was dismissed.
“My understanding is he’s not aware of what’s going on most of the time,” Yellin said. “I don’t know if there’s an official diagnosis. He’s had strokes. He’s got myriad medical things that impacted him.”
Wariner’s daughter, Christina Lonzo, was aware that the murder charge would be dismissed, Yellin said.
“I think she’s as OK with it as she can get,” Yellin said. “She thinks time has robbed her of justice, but there was literally nothing else we could do.”
Faith will be placed in “an appropriate secure facility,” Yellin said.
The murder victim’s daughter told City News Service in January 2015 that she would approve if prosecutors reached a plea deal with Faith and freed him from custody.
“He’s done seven years,” she said at the time. “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 Lonzo.
Faith was 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 in January 2009 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, was 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.”
Prosecutors could refile a murder charge against Faith, but given his state of mind it is unlikely he will ever be healthy enough to stand trial, Yellin said.
–City News Service
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