Serial killers and true crime

Suspected serial killer Joseph Naso was granted permission Thursday to have a legal adviser, but the judge is undecided on whether taxpayers should foot the bill.

IMO that answer is NO!

Judge Andrew Sweet said he will appoint a county official to investigate Naso’s wealth and his ability to access it, and report back later this month. Marin County prosecutors say Naso has more than $1 million in liquid assets — including $150,000 he can access by merely writing a letter to authorities in his home state of Nevada — but Naso says he cannot get to his money and no private lawyer will help him without payment.

“My assets are impounded,” Naso, 77, said during a brief hearing Thursday afternoon. “I have no assets.”

Not that I understand all the legal circumstances but I do not think that frozen is the same as gone.

Naso initially insisted on representing himself in the multiple murder case, saying he did not want to expend money on a lawyer. But recently he filed a motion seeking “advisory counsel” to help with the complex litigation, which could bring him the death penalty.

Deputy District Attorney Dori Ahana argued that Naso is not indigent and has no right to a publicly financed lawyer.

I agree. Nasso can pay for his own defense.

Sweet said he will rule on Naso’s request on July 26 after hearing the report on his finances.

Naso has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering four reputed prostitutes: Roxene Roggasch, 18, dumped between Fairfax and Woodacre in 1977; Carmen Colon, 22, found near Port Costa in 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, found in Yuba County in 1993; and Tracy Tafoya, 31, found in Yuba County in 1994. All four cases are being prosecuted in Marin Superior Court.

 

Roggasch, who lived in the East Bay, was strangled with panty hose that contained the DNA of Naso’s wife, according to court documents. The investigation also revealed that Naso kept a handwritten list of 10 women in 10 locations — including apparent allusions to the four murder victims, authorities allege.

The district attorney has declined to comment on whether the other six women have been identified and accounted for.

Naso, a retired freelance photographer, also kept a collection of racy photos of women — including admitted photos of Parsons — and rented a deposit box with newspaper clippings about two of the murders, authorities said.

The photographs and writings were seized last year at Naso’s home in Reno, where police were conducting a probation search. He was arrested by Marin authorities in April after completing a jail term in an unrelated case.

Naso is being held without bail.

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