Laguna Beach new Nicholson murder leads

Nov. 8, 2009 - PRLog -- By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. Nov 8, 2009 at 2:30 PM PST
         
                                             
Laguna Beach – The murder investigation of Damon L. Nicholson continues. More leads and the reward are the latest developments.
When Nicholson did not show up for work at the Hotel Laguna on Oct. 23, a female co-worker went to the 41-year-old's duplex in the 200 block of Dolphin Way. When no one answered the door, the co-worker entered through an open sliding glass door and discovered the gruesome, bludgeoned and bloody body sprawled out on the sofa. Police indicated that there were no signs of forced entry, leading investigators to conclude that the victim may have invited the killer or killers inside or the killer was someone he knew well. Police do not believe this was a random murder.

Investigators methodically examined the crime scene and forensic evidence was obtained. Police say Nicholson, who lived alone, was hit several times in his torso and head with a heavy blunt object, and that no murder weapon was found at the home. They believe he was beaten to death sometime between the evening of Oct. 22, a Thursday, and Friday morning of the 23rd.

Laguna Beach Homicide Detectives immediately began conducting a routine background check of Nicholson and many of his friends and co-workers. Police also have interviewed friends, co-workers and neighbors of the deceased in an effort to establish motives for the killing and in the hopes of obtaining more important information about the murder.

Cohorts have told investigators that Nicholson was very active in gay relationships and may have been lured to his apt. by the killer or killers. We have interviewed “many, many people,” in the past two weeks, said Sgt. Louise Callus, including some who were romantically involved with the victim. “He dated a lot,” she said.
Investigators are pursuing the possibility that Nicholson may have invited his assailant into his home, and that assailant he may have met in a gay bar or another place where gay men meet to pick up other men. Nicholson could have become a victim of what has become known as “pickup” murders and due to the violent multiple head and torso wounds indicate the “overkill phenomenon” which may be in play here. The overkill phenomenon is often associated with homophobic murders. In view of this information the key question then is whether this murder is being investigated as an anti-gay hate crime? For if it is the FBI could be brought into the investigation.

President Obama made history recently when he signed into law legislation authorizing the federal government to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of violent hate crimes that target victims because of their sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.

The legislation bears the name of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 gruesome murder became one of the nation’s most widely reported hate crimes.


In the Nicholson case new leads are beginning to surface, according to sources the police believe that a lap top and cell phone was taken from the Nicholson home and it is reported that his cell phone was find in a near by dumpster, and is being tested for finger prints and that those phone numbers in the phone and communications are all being run down to see what roll if any they may play in this homicide investigation.

The embezzlement arrest of a Hotel Laguna’s long time employee, also maybe figuring in another tantalizing lead that could be a motive for the killing. It surfaced last Friday in what was claimed an anonymous call to a local news out let. They reported that a female caller suggested revenge was a possible motive in the killing of Nicholson, who had boasted to her about uncovering a $100,000 embezzlement plot at Hotel Laguna last October that led to the arrest and firing of longtime employee Cydney Ann Ruano, 50, of Laguna Niguel. The report indicates that Ruano is scheduled to appear in Newport Beach’s Harbor Justice Center on Nov. 10 for a pre-trial hearing in the theft by embezzlement case. A complaint filed by the district attorney on Aug. 4 says the alleged embezzlement occurred over several years.
The Laguna Journal contacted the DA’s office and asked if Nicholson had been the star witness in the case and the DA’s office refused to confirm one way or the other. Callus discounted the caller’s supposition. “Damon was never interviewed during the embezzlement investigation. His name never was brought up,” she said.
The complaint describes Ruano as a “clerk, agent and servant of Hotel Laguna.”
Proprietor  Claes Andersen of Hotel Laguna Friday suddenly offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer of his catering and events manager of 15 years. Andersen, offered the reward to help identify and convict the killer of Damon Nicholson, said Laguna Beach Police Lt. Jason Kravetz. According to friends the reward is expected to grow.

Ruano, who was fired last October, was a very good friend of Nicholson, said Andersen, who claimed he was the one who discovered the Ruano alleged embezzlement scheme.
Andersen, also told the media he offered a reward to serve as an investigative catalyst. “Unfortunately, money talks,” said Andersen, who hopes a reward will prove irresistible to someone who has so far hesitated to divulge information about the killer.
Police believe that rewards can be successful lures. “They sure are. Sometimes money can entice people to come forward with information,” said Lt. Jason Kravetz. “On other occasions, people who have critical information feel that coming forward is the right thing to do, regardless of the reward money.”
Andersen’s reward is based upon police receiving information that leads to the identity, prosecution and conviction of the murderer.  

Narciso P. Leggs Jr. a Laguna Beach Businessman who operated a limo service was a victim of both a “pickup” murder and the “overkill phenomenon”.
Leggs, a gay man, was tortured and murdered by Gregory Michael Pisarcik. Pisarcik, according to court documents, was looking for a gay man to rob when he met Leggs. Upon capture, Pisarcik confessed the murder to police and asked not to be put in a cell with another man because he hated “fags.”
 
At the time of his murder, Leggs, 53, was retired from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, where he had worked for 22 years. He lived in an unincorporated area between Tustin and Santa Ana. Neighbors often saw Leggs polishing his two prized automobiles — a white Lincoln Town Car and a mauve Rolls-Royce.

Leggs and Pisarcik met at Laguna Beach and went back to Leggs' apartment, stopping to buy vodka along the way, according to court documents.
According to prosecutors, court records and person’s close to the investigation Pisarcik at Legg's apartment grabbed an unopened bottle of champagne and started bashing Leggs' head in. At some point he tied Leggs up. He asked where Leggs kept his money, rummaging the apartment between blows with the champagne bottle.
Pisarcik attempted to strangle Leggs, hog-tied and mutilated his body and wrote "FAGS DIE" on his back in black marker. With a pair of scissors, he cut off both of Leggs' ears. Pisarcik then stomped on Leggs' testicles, urinated on him, and shoved a large flashlight deep into Leggs' rectum.  He also cut off Leggs’s penis and stuffed it into the victim mouth. Forensic evidence (including blood on the refrigerator) later showed that Pisarcik stopped to eat Leggs' food, and also took a shower before he left. Finding less than $2, Pisarcik took Leggs' two guns — a .45-caliber and a .357 magnum — and drove off in Leggs' white Lincoln Town Car. Before leaving, Pisarcik sat on a bed, over Leggs' corpse, cleaning the guns he would take with him.



In addition to offering the reward for Nicholson's killer, Hotel Laguna is organizing a memorial service.

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