The authorized saga surrounding the killing of a California artwork supplier practically 17 years in the past lastly got here to a detailed this 12 months, when two males convicted in an elaborate grift and homicide plot had been sentenced to life with out the opportunity of parole.
The case was derailed for years by allegations of bias — allegations that emerged after a choose was secretly recorded making derogatory feedback about two defendants described by prosecutors because the con artists who orchestrated the plot to take Cliff Lambert’s cash, id and life.
All six individuals charged in Lambert’s 2008 killing in Palm Springs, the desert metropolis in California’s Coachella Valley, had been both convicted or pleaded responsible greater than a decade in the past. However the secret recordings — which had been made illegally by one of many defendants throughout his 2012 trial — prompted a sequence of overturned convictions and new trials for 4 of the accused.
For extra on the case, tune in to “The Prince, The Whiz Child & The Millionaire” on “Dateline” at 9 ET/8 ET tonight.
A kind of defendants was fatally assaulted awaiting retrial. The three others had been convicted once more after a brand new spherical of trials that ended two years in the past. All are interesting their convictions.
Even after these verdicts, sentencing for 2 of the defendants stalled for months — and in a single case, greater than two years — amid claims of ineffective lawyering and well being issues. In April and July, Daniel Garcia, 43, and David Replogle, 76, lastly acquired their punishment.
“I must be happier than I’m, however I’m simply so pissed off,” the prosecutor who dealt with the primary set of trials mentioned after Garcia’s sentencing. “I’m so offended that it took this lengthy.”
The homicide
Lambert, 74, was killed at his dwelling on Dec. 5, 2008, throughout what he believed was a gathering with a lawyer appearing on behalf of a deceased artwork collector, an appeals determination within the case exhibits.
In keeping with former Riverside County Deputy District Lawyer Rob Hightower, the person posing as a lawyer was really Kaushal Niroula — a San Francisco grifter who beforehand claimed to be an exiled prince from Nepal who was one of many architects of the plan to defraud and homicide Lambert.
Throughout one of many trials, Hightower mentioned the opposite architect was Daniel Garcia, described by a onetime shut buddy as educated, charming and well-traveled — somebody who may enamor everybody he met.
Garcia had additionally captured media consideration in San Francisco just a few years earlier when he sued a distinguished native financier, Thomas White, over allegations of sexual abuse. White, who died in 2013, settled with Garcia and a second plaintiff for roughly $500,000 however mentioned the claims had been false, courtroom filings present.
In keeping with the previous buddy, Tyson Wrensch, Garcia and Niroula would present up at bars in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and bathe patrons with free drinks.
“Everybody knew that the prince was on the bar,” he mentioned. “Every thing was excessive.”
Hightower described Garcia because the hyperlink to Lambert, who met Garcia by means of a web-based courting website within the spring of 2008 and flew him to Palm Springs.
In the course of the assembly with Lambert, Niroula secretly let in two accomplices who fatally stabbed the artwork supplier and buried him in a shallow grave north of Los Angeles, Hightower mentioned. Two different accomplices, together with Replogle, a San Francisco lawyer who’d represented Garcia within the intercourse abuse swimsuit, additionally participated within the plot, Hightower mentioned.
After the killing, the group fabricated powers of lawyer in Lambert’s title, drained a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} from his checking account and tried to promote his dwelling, Hightower mentioned.
Inside months, all six had been arrested in reference to the killing. 4 of them, together with Garcia, Niroula and Replogle, had been charged with homicide, conspiracy, grand theft and different crimes. The 4 pleaded not responsible and had been convicted of homicide at separate trials in 2011 and 2012. They had been sentenced to life with out the opportunity of parole.
A fifth suspect confessed, cooperated with authorities and pleaded responsible to voluntary manslaughter. A sixth suspect pleaded responsible to fraud.
Convictions overturned
In 2016, Niroula filed a petition in search of a brand new trial that accused the choose who oversaw the case of bias. The petition included a sequence of bombshell claims: In off-the-record feedback, Riverside County Superior Courtroom Decide David Downing was recorded on Garcia’s courtroom laptop computer speaking together with his clerk about Niroula’s HIV-positive standing.
In keeping with the petition, when the clerk mentioned the defendant “likes licking envelopes,” Downing responded: “Ewww lord is aware of the place his tongue has been and for that very cause I don’t like to the touch or learn something he offers me and I deny all the things as I don’t learn it. It’s a tricky world of us.”
The petition notes one other remark during which Downing used an expletive to explain the defendants and mentioned they “can file something they need, however I received’t grant any necessary motions.”
Throughout a non-public assembly, Garcia confronted Downing in regards to the recordings, in keeping with the appeals determination. Downing responded that he was protected by the First Modification and handled everybody within the case appropriately, the choice exhibits.
Downing, whose legislation license has been listed as inactive since 2013, hasn’t commented publicly on the case or responded to messages left at a telephone quantity listed underneath his title.
In 2020, after the Riverside County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned it didn’t oppose new trials for the 4 defendants who denied the homicide fees, a choose overturned the convictions and ordered the circumstances to be retried.
“I felt most likely the best way Lambert did when he had the knife shoved into his again,” Lisa DiMaria, the Riverside County prosecutor who tried the case, informed “Dateline.” “All of these years that I devoted to getting justice for Lambert out the window. Some of the upsetting days of my life, absolutely the most upsetting day of my profession.”
A jailhouse demise and extra convictions
On Aug. 11, 2022, the primary of the defendants to be retried — Replogle — was convicted of all fees. Weeks later, whereas awaiting retrial, one other inmate killed Niroula on the Riverside County jail, in keeping with a wrongful demise lawsuit filed by Niroula’s household.
The swimsuit, filed in federal courtroom, accuses the county sheriff’s workplace of failing to guard Niroula, 41, from hurt.
In keeping with the swimsuit, Niroula recognized as a transgender girl on the time and was crushed and strangled to demise by an individual described within the criticism as a violent predator who “posed an instantaneous risk of violence and hurt to all different inmates in his fast neighborhood and particularly inmates like Kaushal Niroula.”
The sheriff’s workplace has denied the allegations, that are set for trial in February.
In 2023, two extra convictions adopted. However solely one of many defendants — a former San Francisco bartender whom prosecutors mentioned Niroula let into Lambert’s home — was sentenced. That November, he was ordered to serve life with out the opportunity of parole.
Sentencing for Replogle and Garcia was delayed for months, nevertheless. In a courtroom submitting, Garcia mentioned he hadn’t been supplied with lodging compliant with the People with Disabilities Act. Garcia has a uncommon genetic dysfunction that causes excessive sensitivity to daylight, the submitting says.
Garcia and Replogle additionally raised points about their authorized illustration. At one level final October, as Replogle sought to have a newly appointed lawyer thrown off the case, the choose denied the request and mentioned, “There’s going to be no extra taking part in video games.”
Lastly sentenced — once more
Six months later, on April 25, Riverside County Superior Courtroom Decide Anthony Villalobos denied a movement from Garcia in search of a brand new trial and sentenced him to life with out the opportunity of parole. In July, Villalobos denied a request from Replogle for a brand new trial and sentenced him to the identical punishment.
After Garcia’s listening to, DiMaria, the prosecutor, acknowledged the frustration that she felt after having watched the case drag on for years. She described Downing’s feedback as “flippant” and mentioned the reversal had nothing to do with the standard of the proof prosecutors assembled.
“There was by no means a query about innocence,” she mentioned. “There was by no means a query about whether or not or not he did it.”
“Essentially the most aggravating half is that he conned and manipulated the system, identical to he did together with his victims,” DiMaria mentioned of Garcia. “The prison justice system was performed identical to the entire victims had been.”
Garcia continues to keep up his innocence. In an interview with “Dateline,” he denied taking part in a task within the killing and blamed Niroula and the opposite defendants for the homicide.
