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hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid [Music] hello hello over there how are you you
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know I'm doing okay I had a very nice weekends and I'm sorry to say that to you because I should not have a nice
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weekend and the worst weekend of my life I had a um here we'll get mine over with
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yeah yours was beautiful and I should have stayed with you I had a very nice weekend with John and the little gals we
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just had fun we played board games we watched movies we played outside it was just like a very nice we did some fun
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things oh and I wrote a lot which is uh it always like just feeds my soul when I
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get to do that I swear are you like an author or he's like an author I still that's still wild you are I know it's
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still well that's spelling even oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God uh but and I was also listening to
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an audiobook that was really good whenever I could oh really listening it is um it's one that I've already like
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read the hardcover of but I'm just revisiting it's Stephen King's on writing and it's him talking about like
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the writing process and how about his life and how he became a writer and like his do's and don'ts and it's just like
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and it's um the audiobook is um narrated by him oh that I always like which is fun
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and he reminded me that I need to be a little more I say like he reminded me like we're yeah Stephen talking I'm
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manifesting here I'm manifesting being friends with Stephen King I'm shaking my coffee and I'm sorry if you hear it
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that's part of the manifestation process so she she shakes her coffee around sorry about it sorry it's just what [ __ ]
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okay so but he he reminded me that I need I've been trying to get into routines better because I thrive in a
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routine me too but like this last year has been a tough year it hasn't been a great year it's been um
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how you say shitty it's been it's honestly to put it lightly it's been very shitty but it's been you know
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things happens yeah and things have been like you know we've been vibing a lot better lately like everywhere and every
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part of our Lives yeah reclaiming our power yeah exactly and so I've been trying to get back I fell out of a lot
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of routines during all of that yeah I am no good without a routine or a deadline
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I know you little Cappy over there yeah so you know Stephen Mr King if you will he reminded me that you need to be
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strict on yourself when it comes to writing and you need to write every single day probably around the same time
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in the right in the same place that makes sense and maybe that's what works for him
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that's how you got your first book done that's the thing and I and I was doing that and I was really rolling and so I
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got myself back in that routine and I was like I'm gonna do this and it feels so [ __ ] good I feel like alive well I
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want to start working out more in the morning before we start so I feel like I can have my little workout time you can
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have your writing time there you go we'll just meet and then record a cool episode we'll meet with beautiful
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thriving Minds yes and bodies and souls my therapist told me the three most important things to like maintain a
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healthy mind are getting enough sleep at night um cooking like at home like cooking for
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yourself and exercising and she was like and not like going like crazy but just like 30 minutes of exercise a day like
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go for a walk just [ __ ] climb some stairs I don't know so far I've got like one out of those three so I'm getting it
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I don't even know if I have one out of those three right now I'm like take out sit on the couch don't do anything good
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for your mind because I'm in a state of sad yeah Ash had a rough weekend yeah never fly across the country for someone
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you think is your friend when they're not your friend that's all I'll say yeah don't do that yeah she could not agree
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yeah I flew across the country was gonna like celebrate somebody put a whole lot
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of [ __ ] into it and didn't get a whole lot of [ __ ] out of it but you know you
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live you learn yeah I think the universe was just like hey maybe you don't need certain people in your life anymore
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she's always she's always uh teaching she is and I feel bad maybe I just accidentally took all of your happy
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weekends so I apologize for that that's okay no you know the wealth I kept thinking like
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is this a decision I should make like should I do this and whenever you're second guessing yourself you always
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trust your gut yeah I'm not good I'm not good at that so I'm I'm preaching something that I don't always do but I
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always want to do afterwards because I always regret not listening to my tummy you and I were saying it this morning
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it's like we're both kind of introverts like I've I've used to be such an extrovert but over the past couple years
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I feel like I've become a little more introverted I think because I'm like happy with my home life yeah
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so I was like maybe I need to like get out there and like do things and like show myself I can have fun then I was
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like whoa you're like this isn't fun I am having fun just a different kind of fun yeah I came home and I was I said to
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Drew I was like you're my fun oh Drew Drew's my fun too yeah he's so funny I love Drew I love it I like our little
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bubble that we have like the new John drew a couple other friends out there on the outside but like you know what I
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learned in like the first couple weeks of 27 keep your [ __ ] Circle small yeah you know
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oh I know you know I know well you know that was our weekends I hope you guys I hope you guys had more
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of a a my weekend if like a happy weekend I suppose um and you know what we're gonna get Ash
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right the [ __ ] out of that shitty weekend and into a great week fantastic not with this case but like we're gonna
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do it in other ways no we're gonna we're gonna do something with like the kids tomorrow that's gonna be fun that that
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honestly feeds my soul I think I've just really moved on to a different part of life they will feed your soul all day
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yeah I'm ready to just like hang out with your kids have my own kids just [ __ ] Vibe oh it's the best yeah it's
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so much fun built-in friends they make you feel great they do make they really do this morning the hugs I got I was
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like oh [ __ ] why did I leave oh [ __ ] well I guess um yeah so I hope you guys
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had a great weekend and um here we go because we gotta do part two here yeah and it's
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gonna get a little rough and I think this case is really really yeah I think I should tell you right off the bat it's
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gonna get a little a little tough to listen to but there is you know this case involves sexual assault it involves
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a very gruesome attack and this guy's just a dick and okay you just start before I start asking questions okay
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okay okay okay okay all right so in case you are just coming here we are on part two of the murder
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the kidnapping and murder of Denise Huber um when we last left you police investigators had found that um chest
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freezer yes in John fomalaro's rented rider truck that he had stolen yup and had kept for for months and months many
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many many months and they were like oh yeah that is missing yes and when they had opened the freezer they'd found a
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body inside they were fairly certain that this was the body of missing Denise Huber
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so that is where we left you we're going to move right on to where the investigation began okay so the body was
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transported to the medical examiner's office and that's where at first an external examination was conducted this
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was done by Dr Ann Buck uh buckholtz who was the medical examiner at the time Denise's head had been wrapped in three
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white kitchen garbage bags oh my God it's gruesome when they removed all of those garbage bags you could see that
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her entire head had been covered in Gray tape quote from the mouth to the upper eyelids Jesus now Dr buckholtz noted
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that the head had many external injuries to it the skull was what she wrote what
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they referred to as basically shattered yeah wow uh horrifically there was also noted to be a number of curved and
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oval-shaped lacerations and through these lacerations brain tissue was visible oh my God that's how bad this
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was there were also fragments of the white plastic bags that were embedded in these
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fractures in the skull which indicated that the bags had been put over Denise's head before the injuries were inflicted
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what because they had gone into the wounds oh they ended up reconstructing her skull
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and they showed that there was at least 31 separate injuries to her skull holy [ __ ] 31 separate injuries this guy's a
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monster and Dr buckholtz noted that there was probably many more than the 31 because there was fractions fractures on
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top of fractures what it was a frenzied horrific horrifically brutal assault and I think
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you said last time that he didn't even know her yeah now the cause of death was determined to
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be blunt force trauma to the head I would think um there would have been a lot of
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bleeding when this happened and the thing is outside of this there didn't appear to be a lot of evidence of trauma
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anywhere else on the body okay it seemed like it was very focused on her head which is horrifying
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um at first there didn't seem to be evidence of sexual assault and they were hoping that there wasn't
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um what they said was although Dr buckhold stated that a sexual assault can occur without trauma to the vaginal
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region they didn't see any initially so they had to allow Denise's body to basically thaw out before they could do
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all the tests they needed to because remember she's been frozen for years at this point so when that time came they
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did do additional swabs they took and when they came back the and this is really graphic I'm sorry the anal swabs
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were positive for the presence of some degraded semen oh my so she was raped yeah now the medical examiner also took
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prints from the body and they submitted them for processing they came back two days later indicating that the body was
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that of missing Newport Beach woman Denise Huber so it was officially confirmed right they were pretty sure
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right off the bat but the discovery came back as so heartbreaking and shocking for
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Denise's family her friends lone Huber her mother told reporters it's not the answer we wanted but at least we got it
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because remember they've been going through years for this exactly of absolutely nothing no leads they didn't
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even get a chance to run down anything like and hit a brick wall they had nothing it was just brick wall after
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brick wall right off the bat right just like random tips coming in that were going nowhere yeah so obviously this is
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not what they want to hear this is not the outcome they're looking for of course you're always hoping your
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daughter or son or child is going to be found alive but they were trying to prepare themselves for the worst and at
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least now they know at least now they know that she is not out there still waiting to be found when she can be laid
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to rest yeah now Costa Mesa detectives were also very very dismayed by this news Sergeant Jerry Holloway said this
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may be the end to one of this Department's biggest frustrations ever I would think because again it's not like
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this was one of those things where they just had lead after lead and they didn't
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pan out they got nothing so this is for it to end this way is like a slap in the
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face like it really is it's just like all of It Came Crashing Down at once the discovery of Denise's body may have
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brought the search to a very very tragic conclusion but it did open up a whole new part of the case because everyone
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involved wanted to know who the [ __ ] is this guy who did this to her who is this man and
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how did she wind up nearly 400 miles away right from where she was last seen like what happened here that's exactly
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all of my questions yeah Sergeant Holloway told reporters we could not link him to the investigation before
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today like so strange to me and investigators in Arizona luckily obtained a search
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warrant and they'd begun digging through farmallaro's house and Dewey which had uh belonged to his father until his
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death okay so the search of his home was pretty tough and pretty intense because
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it was covered in trash and clutter by the time they were done they had collected over a hundred thousand items
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from the home what the [ __ ] yep and many of them were crucial to the investigation like in the garage they
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discovered two boxes labeled Christmas in those boxes they found several black garbage bags like the one Denise's body
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had been wrapped in several of Denise's belongings personal belongings were in boxes labeled
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Christmas her wallet her checkbook her car keys her purse her lipstick her ID everything she had on her
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several of the items appeared to be Blood Stained as well another box had the clothing she had been wearing the
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night she disappeared in it her jacket her dress her underwear her high heels the dress appeared to have been toured
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around torn around the left shoulder and the shoes had quote severe scrapes on the back of both heels as if she was
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dragged perhaps and the tip of one heel had been broken off now also in the box with Denise's
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clothing was a blood-stained hammer a blood-stained pair of men's jeans a blood-stained sweatshirt dried
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blood-soaked rags and a pair of surgical gloves turned inside out who the [ __ ] is
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this guy and the fact that he kept all of that like he even kept the surgical gloves I was just gonna say even the
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gloves like just took them off how you would normally like inside out and through the Meta Box and like just kept
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that in his house for it it's been three years yeah he had kept it like he had kept these for years at this point that
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is so disturbing and a third box was found in the garage as well and these contained the empty box for the
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handcuffs that were used to secure Denise's hands behind her back he kept the box so he kept like I think you had
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said it last time he kept like multiple multiples so many items to look back at it it also had a blood-stained nail
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puller which if you look that up what more more bloody Rags a roll of duct tape and white plastic garbage bags like
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the ones that were wrapped around Denise's head when you say nail polar you mean like like construction nail
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puller what was it it's like a giant like crowbar looking thing with like a slit knit to like yank the nails out oh
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my God it sounds like he used many things to kill her with he's a [ __ ] He's this man he's a [ __ ] monster
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seriously this is another unfortunate instance where a guy named John is a [ __ ] bag damn it now inside the house
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they found more of what they needed to tie him to Denise and her body in the house they found the receipt for the
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freezer which showed that it had been purchased in June 10th 1991 which was a week after Denise had disappeared wow
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they also found the Handcuff keys inside a desk drawer and what is even more horrific is the fact that they found a
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ton of issues of the Orange County Reg sister which was a newspaper and it all of them had featured stories about
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Denise's disappearance they also found a videotape of the episode of Inside Edition that featured
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a segment of Denise's disappearance he taped it and this one had like um a whole segment about the search that
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had gone undergone to find her like with her family on it her parents upset [ __ ] animal had the [ __ ] had taped it
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on a videotape and had saved articles about her disappearance what happened to this man to like like what like this
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isn't one of those things where you're like oh like you know like he needs of course he needs to be locked away but
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like this seemed like it was like a snap or something like that you know what I mean like nothing's ever you know
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validating it but like you're like wow this is just one of those instances where someone like lost it right
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he saved everything and then had a videotape where he could watch her family and friends and the investigators
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missing her and trying to find her what an articles about The Disappearance with quotes from her parents with quotes
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from her family and friends like this is so disturbing he's a [ __ ] demon truly
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and just found her by happenstance yeah and so upsetting back in Costa Mesa investigators began digging into his
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history and they started paying particular attention to his life around the time that Denise disappeared in 1991
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and that year he was working as a commercial painter and had been living and working out of a warehouse space in
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Laguna Beach California okay so of course they went straight to that warehouse space yeah crime scene
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technicians found evidence of blood spatter on the wall and floor in the corner of the warehouse so he did this
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in his place of work when technicians removed the piece of drywall of that police and Pace in the
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like wood framing yeah they found a huge blood stain behind the wall that was described as quote a thick deep maroon
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color oh my God and nobody had ever discovered in the corner in a corner of this Warehouse in Laguna Beach
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California and nobody ever saw that and reported it like because like because this stain was behind the drywall oh
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that's a thing they ripped out the drywall now his defense lawyer Larry Katz maintained that his client was innocent
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and called the case against him entirely circumstantial herb all of her belongings her her body
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everything yep was in his possession what is circumstantial about him having a dead body on his property yeah
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why he told reporters I have every confidence in my client's innocence somebody should have said look me in the
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eyes and say that yeah look at me in the eyes are you kidding me yeah and yeah it's and he he also said that
00:19:01
um famularo was quote appropriately depressed about the situation oh yeah he's like super bummed that this
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happened yep but he also insisted that his client not speak to anyone which I bet pretty bold
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um I'm shocked by that like and just hearing this man be like and I I understand that's his job I get it
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but it is shocking to hear all of that evidence include she was found there on his
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property the receipt for the freezer that she was found in was found there then the box for the handcuffs that are
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on her body currently when they found her is in his house and I'm sorry circumstantial about like that's why I'm
00:19:45
like demon being found in her body did he look up the definition of circumstantial like a little confused
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that with a case like as Gnar like the way that she was found wouldn't you go for your like insanity at the very least
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truly rather than circumstantial but I think honestly you couldn't go for Insanity because it would be hard
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because of that taped Inside Edition thing all the newspapers like that shows that he he didn't find what he did wrong
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he liked it he sat there and watched he sat there and watched her family cry about it oh my God on a videotape but
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I'm like circumstantial is not the way to go oh my God truly like there's no way to go here now I suppose we have to
00:20:25
tell you about John fomalaro well I just want to know what what the [ __ ] [ __ ] he
00:20:29
is so he was born June 10th 1957 in Long Island New York so he bought the freezer
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on his birthday what the [ __ ] it gets more and more horrifying the more you go into it yeah
00:20:45
what and killed her a week before her birthday his birthday and then went on his birthday purchased the freezer and
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that was his birthday that is unreal yeah he was the youngest of three children his parents were in and Angela
00:20:59
from alaro According to John we always have to take their thing his mother was quote the dominant force in the family
00:21:08
while his father was pretty passive and tolerated her demands and verbal abuse which could absolutely be true but this
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is just coming from him a year after John was born the family moved from Long Island to Santa Ana because his father
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had been sent to establish a manufacturing plant in Garden Grove California the children which included his brother
00:21:30
Warren and sister Marion were really really close to their father they had a very loving relationship by all accounts
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they really got along okay their relationship with their mother was a different story according to them they
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said it was a very erratic it was a very tense relationship not a good one not a
00:21:48
loving one according to all the children including his siblings she was very the mother was very
00:21:55
difficult very confrontational and she was very controlling she was also a devout Catholic with which in and of
00:22:03
itself I'm not saying is a bad trait but she was because of that she was very and
00:22:07
she was like very devout so she was very preoccupied with saving their souls okay and would use that as justification
00:22:16
for abusing them physically and emotionally um and that's that's the bad part of
00:22:23
that kind of devoutness yeah um and the children also said that they got isolated a lot from you know from other
00:22:30
children really like they didn't get to play with other children a lot they were
00:22:33
isolated from kids at church but then those who knew them around this time said that the children seemed very
00:22:40
focused and very well behaved which I say sure I'm sure they were very focused and very well behaved they had an
00:22:46
abusive Mother exactly they were usually those kind of kids are trying to keep it
00:22:49
together so they don't get hurt exactly now apparently the outside of the home looked very neat and clean and tidy no
00:22:55
one would have ever thought that something was going on inside totally different story according to the
00:23:01
children the inside was cluttered trash food magazines everything newspapers just things stacked everywhere and they
00:23:10
acknowledged that this was also something that their maternal grandmother had done so it seemed like
00:23:14
this was just something that came down the family line mental illness kind of thing they also said that Anne was their
00:23:21
mother was very paranoid like very paranoid and she also had this like obsessive like kind of Doomsday thing
00:23:29
where she thought they had to like hoard things because like the end was coming now
00:23:34
When the Children became adolescents she also got very preoccupied with sex oh no
00:23:40
I had a feeling it was out of there and there wasn't very productive or very healthy discussions about sex in that
00:23:46
household um she even bathed them person personally into their pre-teen years oh
00:23:53
um she was a little strange with her behavior for bedtime according to the children
00:23:58
and years later Warren fomalaro want the brother would be convicted of sexually assaulting three children and serve a
00:24:06
sentence in a facility for mentally disordered sex offenders so something was going on absolutely in that house
00:24:12
that's really sad that did not help them become healthy adults now as a teen and
00:24:18
young adult John famularo developed a lot of unhealthy coping skills um he liked everything to be very
00:24:26
symmetrical and it was like an obsessive kind of like everything needs to be symmetrical and he would also go into
00:24:33
bursts of energy and hyperactivity and then depression so he seemed like he had unhealthy coping skills because he was
00:24:41
not diagnosed with whatever was clearly going on here like I'm not going to diagnose him I don't know but there's
00:24:48
clearly something going on that should have been diagnosed and treated so that he could form healthy coping skills and
00:24:55
he didn't get that oh this is a lot so he got when he was like you know in his teen years and stuff he was bullied a
00:25:01
lot because of these kind of things right and he would get in trouble a lot at school because of that so after
00:25:07
graduating from high school he attended a Catholic liberal arts college and now that he was away from his mother it did
00:25:14
seem like he was getting better at his social skills makes sense starting to you know I think that she was really
00:25:20
keeping him at that level unfortunately he did find College to not be super easy
00:25:26
or tolerable for him retweet and after enrolling in and dropping out of several schools and classes he just stopped
00:25:33
before completing it now as an adult there seemed like there was like two sides of him yeah like John fomalaro
00:25:40
like people knew two different things on one hand friends remember him being very
00:25:45
funny an intelligent guy very very polite is what he was described as but then other people saw him as very
00:25:53
secretive a little manipulative he could be like too too Charming like a smooth talker kind of thing like a snake oil
00:26:00
salesman kind of vibe yeah so it seems like he had two very distinct sides of himself that he would show at any given
00:26:07
moment whatever helped him at the time he has a Gemini yeah there you go now there was also a dark side to his
00:26:13
personality that investigators found while interviewing his former girlfriends oh no because according to
00:26:19
one former girlfriend um I'm not going to say her name no she and John had taken a trip to New York
00:26:25
City in 1987 and they were like play fighting one morning like as couples do like just ooh you know yeah
00:26:32
um but then John took it like too far and he stripped her of her clothes and handcuffed her to a window in the hotel
00:26:39
room then left her there for several hours alone handcuffed when he came back later he was laughing
00:26:47
being like this is hilarious like thought this was a funny game and she was like clearly terrified and
00:26:55
traumatized that is so insane I guess after they left this trip and went back to California they immediately broke up
00:27:02
she was like bye yeah they did reconcile in 1991. which is the year that Denise went missing but they they didn't
00:27:09
reconcile as a couple they just like knocked it out yeah and they became they like remained friends after he moved to
00:27:17
Arizona in 1992 okay but court records indicate that John also took photographs of her during this whole thing she said
00:27:26
she doesn't remember this at all because she was so traumatized that I think she
00:27:29
just blocked it out yeah like PTSD but in another incident that occurred in March of 1989 John was dating another
00:27:36
woman and according to court records she stopped by his house one afternoon just
00:27:41
to visit and she tried to leave his house once the visit was over and John quote pushed her onto the bed causing
00:27:49
her back shoulder and head to hit a bookcase when she was down he forced her hands above her head and handcuffed her
00:27:55
to the bed frame then he removed her closing clothing against her wishes forcibly and
00:28:02
indicated his intent to rape her it was only after she had started screaming as loud as she could and saying that she
00:28:11
was going to report him that he released the handcuffs and let her leave but when
00:28:15
he when she left he called her a [ __ ] and said you're the one that brought this on oh yeah because that's how that
00:28:21
works yeah so he's a [ __ ] foul abuse he's an animal apparently later when they had talked about this because they
00:28:28
broke up but they had talked about it and I guess he'd said to her that she just obviously didn't know mature sex
00:28:34
games I don't think you know what being a human is no now in late 1992 John moved
00:28:48
to Arizona to help his mom because which like whoa because she was caring for his
00:28:54
ailing father okay and remember he did have a good relationship with his father right and he actually kept living in the
00:29:01
house with his mother after his father died for his health in those kind of relationships those parent-child
00:29:09
relationships when they are like that sometimes they just cling continue you know what I mean like the person will
00:29:15
continue it exactly now that is John fomalaro wow what a story yeah and on July 20th 1994 after
00:29:25
he had been arrested John fomalaro appeared before judge for the first time um at the hearing authorities testified
00:29:32
that the extent of Denise's wounds were just unmentionable and they called the repeated blows to the Head heinous and
00:29:41
depraved and they said all of this means that it warrants the death penalty agreed which would automatically
00:29:47
disqualify him from receiving bail now his defense attorney Larry Katz there he argued that the evidence was
00:29:54
entirely circumstancial and since he had no History of Violence uh what he was not a Flight Risk
00:30:03
I disagree the judge was like no the judge was like yeah um did you read this case yeah he was like did you just walk
00:30:11
in here like just wake up come in here not knowing anything like did you talk to someone but he was denied bail and
00:30:18
returned back to jail thankfully so his bail hearing began a series of hearings and delays that dragged this case on for
00:30:26
several years before it even reached the criminal trial phase so in late August famularo waved
00:30:32
extradition and was transported from Arizona to Orange County California and he was then put in the Orange County
00:30:38
Jail to await his arraignment okay on September 26 1994 he appeared before an Orange County grand jury it was during
00:30:46
this hearing that the prosecution announced the attachment of special circumstances to the murder trial right
00:30:53
they said that Denise Huber's death occurred during her kidnapping which would make him eligible for the death
00:30:59
penalty in total he was indicted on one charge of kidnapping one charge of murder with special circumstances and
00:31:08
one count of sodomy now he was no longer being represented by Larry Katz at this
00:31:14
point I wonder why because Larry was like oh this isn't circumstantial at all and I have to go and now we had a public
00:31:19
defender named Leonard gumlia and he acknowledged that the case was uh complicated a little bit particularly
00:31:27
because of the semen found in Denise Huber's body right but he maintained the position that it was completely
00:31:34
circumstantial which I'm a little confused about y'all he said anybody who thinks they know
00:31:41
what happened that night is only guessing I don't know I don't know I think all the evidence points to your client he
00:31:48
said there's no evidence of any trauma that something forcible happened there may be something consensual happening
00:31:55
some of the questions remain unanswered and you can read the physical evidence in many ways there's no evidence that
00:32:02
any trauma happened like I'm sorry I know he's doing his job I get it but like is he though because there is
00:32:09
evidence trauma what the [ __ ] like it's just hard to hear that's just hard to hear somebody say that like
00:32:18
something along the lines of like this was a frenzy killing and then like yeah I mean you got it the rest of forever he
00:32:24
just had because it's just like oof because you're really sticking with that yeah I don't I don't I don't think this
00:32:31
is the way to come at it I don't think this was the way to come at it no I don't know what the right way to come
00:32:36
out it is I'll say that but this isn't it now he stayed the defense attorney stayed very vague in terms of what they
00:32:44
said here but they were definitely laying the groundwork for a defense where Denise went with John famularo
00:32:50
willingly and consented to sex yeah which is a bold move to take like her car was found
00:32:57
abandoned on the side of the road you guys like I don't know if you remember that this is one of those where I think
00:33:02
you should just like you should just go at it and be like yeah he did it but let's try to minimize this right a
00:33:07
little bit if that's what you're you know because that's their job but this this and this is the problem with
00:33:13
this defense that they were laying groundwork for because it's like how does it explain the exceeding leaved
00:33:18
violent death that she suffered right how are you telling me and just the fact that her car was abandoned she clearly
00:33:25
didn't go anywhere willingly exactly that's the thing it undermines the kidnapping and sexual assault charges
00:33:30
that and this is the thing like we're sitting here looking at it from this point of view being like what the [ __ ]
00:33:36
but they're doing it because if they do somehow plant a seed like that in somebody in the jury's Minds then it
00:33:44
undermines the sexual assault and kidnapping charges that you need for those special circumstances to elevate
00:33:50
it to a death penalty so they're trying to remove it from that wild now Orange County Superior Court Judge Catholic
00:33:58
Kathleen O'Leary set the trial date for October 2nd 1995. so she was missing in 1991. yeah
00:34:06
um so the prosecution in defense had a lot of time to prepare but complicating matters for both sides
00:34:13
were the introduction of DNA evidence which at this point was pretty new it was a pretty new science as far as you
00:34:18
know the public knew yes and by April of 1995 the defense petitioned the court for a delay
00:34:25
they noted the extraordinary amount of evidence seemed from famularo's home in Arizona which I'm like circumstantial
00:34:32
evidence you mean is that what you're you're noting is you need to go through the circumstantial evidence okie dokie
00:34:37
he said we have to go through 65 boxes of documents and he said he documented his whole life
00:34:43
so judge O'Leary approved the request and set the new trial date for April 29 1996.
00:34:50
the trial would be delayed for another full year as the defense entered motion after motion after motion asking for all
00:34:59
this time to review additional evidence interview Witnesses the defense needed way more time because they knew they had
00:35:06
a [ __ ] case yeah so Denise and lone Hume or excuse me Dennis and load of Huber Dennis and
00:35:12
loner are her parents they waited more than three years to even learn what happened to Denise and then hear that
00:35:19
yeah and then they waited even more time to see him even begin to face Justice finally on April 21st 1997. oh my God
00:35:28
jury selection began six years yes in Orange County Superior Court um and it was the people of the State of
00:35:35
California versus John fomalaro Denise's former boyfriend Stephen the one who couldn't go to the concert that night
00:35:42
told the LA Times everyone I know still wants to know what's happening in the case but unfortunately Denise's friends
00:35:48
and family would just have to wait several more weeks for the trial to even begin because once again the the defense
00:35:55
held it up with objections to certain jury members and they said there was a death in the family why are you just
00:36:02
trying to keep this ongoing let this family rest man so you don't have a good case send them to jail at the end now
00:36:09
after a long and very tense jury selection the trial finally started on May 8th 1997. in his opening statement
00:36:17
Deputy district attorney Christopher Evans laid out the state's case against John fomalaro telling the jury how
00:36:24
Denise had Denise had been pulled from her car by him then sexually assaulted and brutally brutally and gruesomely
00:36:31
killed he told the jury Denise did not go easily and then he detailed the extent of her injuries and assault and
00:36:39
according because she fought back yeah absolutely now according to the district attorney famularo had gone out of his
00:36:44
way to purchase a freezer and steal a rider truck in order to keep Huber's body and he said keep it as quote a
00:36:52
perverse trophy to remind himself of the success he had that night and it's true
00:36:57
you've gone out of his way to keep this stuff and like he just would go in there
00:37:02
and like look that's the thing it's like what did you what were you doing right like oh it's Unthinkable it really is it
00:37:10
is now anticipating the defense's argument that Denise went willingly with John fomalaro Evans made sure to remind
00:37:17
the jury that Huber's car had broken down thank you in a well-lit area surrounded by several options for
00:37:24
assistance and just a short walk from her parents house oh no under those circumstances it makes absolutely zero
00:37:33
sense that she would instead of going to get help in these several Avenues laid out to her she would get in a car with a
00:37:41
sketchy guy no who would have definitely immediately driven her in the wrong direction exactly like it wouldn't have
00:37:47
happened no no it's so sad that her car broke down that close to home that's the
00:37:52
thing it's like if her car hadn't broken down it's like oh now among the first Witnesses called by
00:37:58
the prosecution was Rob Calvert who was the friend she went to the concert with [Music]
00:38:03
um he testified the events of the evening and he included the fact that they did they definitely had several
00:38:09
drinks over the course of the evening but he was like it wasn't a big deal yeah under cross-examination
00:38:15
Leonard gumlia the defense attorney honed in on that fact but it definitely backfired on him because following his
00:38:23
cross-examination of Calvert he had to make it clear that he didn't mean to imply quote that Huber was drunk but to
00:38:31
suggest that she had drunk enough to not want to summon help from authorities and
00:38:35
to take a little more risk than you might otherwise do in that situation oh so uh victim blaming so it's like that
00:38:42
wasn't a good look on your part oh and it's like okay so she's not allowed a grown woman of age is not allowed to
00:38:49
drink at a concert right and if she does so then she just like you know what do you think happened of course she was
00:38:56
going to get brutally assaulted and murdered and kidnapped no it's not interesting how these things like don't
00:39:01
really get brought up unless it's like FEMA female exactly are you going to do that with a guy if this was the other
00:39:06
way around right no the defense's line of questioning was definitely aimed at supporting their Ultimate Defense which
00:39:13
was she went willingly and they hadn't presented that to the jury yet because they were trying to lead up to it and
00:39:19
kind of lay groundwork to get that and the jury to get the jury thinking they came up with it kind of thing so they
00:39:25
thought they were doing that but it kept backfiring I was gonna say this is a hot
00:39:29
mess on there so yeah it just kept making them look shitty to be honest and they had no proof of it right now how do
00:39:35
you even prove that no and again it doesn't make sense that you would go willingly with some strange guy and it's
00:39:40
not like John fomalaro looked like a wholesome guy that you wanted to get in the car with like he just didn't really
00:39:46
so the prosecution rested its case on May 14th and the defense requested that the judge drop the kidnapping charge
00:39:54
what they said quote I understand that she ended up in a place she didn't want to be and ended up in a condition she
00:40:01
didn't want to be in but there's no evidence that she got there forcefully uh I'm sorry did you see her shoes yeah
00:40:12
her drag marks thank you because the prosecution strongly objected they argued that they believed Denise was
00:40:18
blindfolded which they said had a ton of implication and Judge John Ryan agreed with Evans
00:40:25
saying there are too many reasonable inferences to show kidnapping and they were trying to argue that those scuff
00:40:31
marks came from something else they weren't from being dragged are you kidding me yeah or he literally
00:40:35
literally broke yeah on May 19th the defense tried to change the tactic now and the defense didn't
00:40:44
deny that famularo had killed Denise Huber instead they were arguing that because she was a little intoxicated she
00:40:51
made a poor decision to not seek help from authorities and got in the car that with the stranger so now she's trying to
00:40:57
say they're trying to say okay she did get willingly in that car but she was drunk that's why so now they're
00:41:04
trying to back something okay initially I was saying that she got in there willingly like weren't
00:41:11
mentioning the drunk thing just she wanted to get in the car with him and consented to sex yep and now they're
00:41:16
saying well no no she's drunk so she made a dumb decision that's what now they're trying to be like wow what a
00:41:22
dumb decision that was and also even if it was the case and it was like a silly Choice yeah it shouldn't result in you
00:41:28
getting murdered and speaking on those scuffs and things to her shoes right the defense said that the shoes Denise was
00:41:37
wearing that night had the scuffs on them hadn't happened when she was dragged as the prosecution was trying to
00:41:43
oh when did they have a wildly claim they said it happened when Denise was quote walking up and down the freeway
00:41:49
embankment where the car was found oh she was dragging her dragging her heels right that makes a lot of sense which I
00:41:55
want to be like okay did anyone in that courtroom go can you show me physically how you do that yeah would that happen
00:42:00
just show me put on a pair of heels yeah show me how you Scuff the back of your heels because that's the thing I love to
00:42:05
me how that happens so the jury deliberated for just five hours before returning a verdict of guilty on
00:42:13
the charges of first-degree murder good also kidnapping yeah and also sodomy yeah Dennis Huber told reporters after
00:42:22
the verdict it's a step in Justice the man who did that is that much closer to meeting his Justice the death penalty
00:42:28
good so her parents wanted it and although the verdict came as a relief to a lot of people Deputy district attorney
00:42:35
Christopher Evans was quick to remind everyone this is not a case of Great Law Enforcement cracking a crime it was a
00:42:42
fluke it fell into their hands he almost got away with it it's true and unfortunately that is 100 true yeah he
00:42:51
almost got away with it and he would have done this again there's not a doubt in my personal mind it was honestly
00:42:57
because of Elaine and her husband that Elaine trusted her gut and wrote down the information she was a bad bee
00:43:05
without Elaine this was never never been caught yeah he could have kept on living
00:43:10
that way and other people could have fallen victim so it's it's really upsetting when you think about it that
00:43:16
this was a complete fluke absolutely it's also I can't imagine being one of those ex-girlfriends and being like how
00:43:24
close you were seriously especially yeah one of them it was like a couple weeks before he murdered yes like like had
00:43:30
he's like I don't I don't even want to say snapped because that's not what happened yeah but had he decided right
00:43:37
to open up that part of him that was clearly there it's very upsetting now John fomalaro
00:43:44
returned to court in late May for the sentencing phase um over two weeks friends and family got
00:43:51
to testify on the impact of Denise's murder on their lives with him in the room um at times I guess the jury and several
00:43:59
members of the Court were in tears I bet with all these testimonials it was a really emotional
00:44:05
um emotional sentencing phase you would think so and the defense called several character witnesses to testify on
00:44:11
famularo's behalf including his mother yeah told the court that her son had truly and she was actually right here
00:44:20
she said her son had truly never received the help he needed yeah which yeah 100
00:44:27
after several more delays famularo finally came back into court on September 5th 1997. now remember the
00:44:37
sending sentencing phase was two weeks in May and this was in September Judge John Ryan sentenced him to death
00:44:46
he said just imagine what was going through her mind yeah and judge Ryan said that the brutality the crime was
00:44:53
the reason that he was imposing the death penalty he said nothing he couldn't think of something that matched
00:44:57
the brutality of this I can't either now as you know it's a death penalty case so
00:45:03
his verdict was set for automatic appeal and the first appeal was heard in 2007.
00:45:09
oh wow and it argued that the publicity surrounding the case in Orange County basically ensured that he wasn't going
00:45:16
to receive a fair trial it said both that the court aired on denying the change of uh venue motion I.E that at
00:45:24
the time of the motion it was reasonably likely that a fair trial could not be had and that the error was prejudicial
00:45:30
I.E that is reasonable it is reasonably likely that a fair trial was not in fact
00:45:36
had police the appeal motion also argued that the outcome of the case case was very influenced by the media coverage in
00:45:44
which I can't believe this in which quote Denise Huber had been portrayed in a very favorable light while fomalaro
00:45:51
had been portrayed in negative terms that's probably because nobody ever found a dead body on Denise's property
00:45:56
and they found a dead body in multiple other horrific horrific heinous things on that man's property yeah I'd say
00:46:03
that's why probably most likely it's I love that it's like oh yeah they portrayed Denise in a favorable light
00:46:08
and it's like no maybe she was just an awesome person yeah pieces of [ __ ] she was clearly maybe that was it like I
00:46:14
don't think they were like taking out giant black marks on her record like she was a good person exactly she was a
00:46:23
decent human being with her friend that night yeah and she was close to her family she was a good friend people
00:46:28
liked her she liked animals like she was okay like [ __ ] you like what John famular is a piece of [ __ ] and a woman
00:46:35
being who has abused and like traumatized several women so okay maybe that's why if that's the media
00:46:42
influencing people then like I don't understand this apparently nor do I yeah now ultimately the appeals court
00:46:49
rejected both of these things and upheld the lower Court's original verdict and sentence of death
00:46:55
in 2006 a United States District Court Judge ruled that California's capital punishment laws were unconstitutional
00:47:02
since then all death row sentences have remained in place but are essentially sitting in like a Purgatory here yeah
00:47:11
like a limbo they're on indefinite hold basically including John famularis he remains on death row in San Quentin
00:47:19
prison and he will likely stay there for the rest of his life for Denise's parents Dennis and lone
00:47:25
whatever happens to John fomalaro from this point they don't give a [ __ ] at this point I don't blame it Dennis told
00:47:31
a reporter from the Los Angeles Times in 2006 it's done it's done I feel there's
00:47:36
nothing more that can be done it's up to the state to do something with them now
00:47:39
they're basically like [ __ ] you guys yeah and they said after more than 30 years which wow the pain of losing their
00:47:48
daughter is with them daily it doesn't go away it doesn't dull nothing makes it better but they have managed to find at
00:47:55
least some peace Dennis said the wound never heals you just learn how to deal with it and it doesn't hurt quite as
00:48:01
much as it did at first oh but that what is the horrific case of the kidnapping and murder an assault of Denise Huber
00:48:12
that's a tragic tragic case and just so brutal John fomalaro is a I it's hard to even describe him I don't
00:48:22
think he I don't think there's words on this planet that could possibly because there's no remorse either There's No
00:48:29
Remorse there's no never apologize apology there's no real thing like he didn't give any insight as to right like he
00:48:39
just stumbled upon her yeah and like what he just drove by her and that was it you have to wonder if he'd killed
00:48:48
before that right because that is like I mean maybe who knows some people do just
00:48:53
do something like this that's the thing like you want to say like there's no way
00:48:59
that this can be his first because it's so brutal brutal but like that happens it does sometimes they start like this
00:49:06
but it's just and it's it's the trophies yeah and the amount of trophies that he kept it's
00:49:15
another girl's blood stains yeah he kept the boxes for the handcuffs I mean like
00:49:20
them Christmas everything everything yeah he's a sick [ __ ] yeah he truly is this is a a doozy yeah it's awful but
00:49:30
wow I I mean it sounds like at least her family was able to find peace in the closure of it but obviously nothing
00:49:39
takes away and honestly they had to sit in that courtroom and hear what happened and look at this
00:49:46
piece of [ __ ] that stole their daughter away I know I hope nothing but the best
00:49:49
for them going forward I know they seem like very kind very sweet yeah like a really good family like I really hope
00:49:55
that yeah at least some good things happen to them after this that they could enjoy
00:50:01
like um I don't know how you would ever be able to again but because they have truly been through gone through
00:50:06
something that none of us can even fathom conjure up in our head at least here in this room yeah
00:50:12
oh my well I feel like we've had a lot of back to back like very very brutal cases so I'm working on a haunted case
00:50:20
right we need that yeah we need that's you know spooky season is upon us um I was like to me sure to me it's a
00:50:30
problem it's only a few months that's what I mean I can smell it oh so bring me the spooky cases spooky scary
00:50:37
skeletons and pumpkins and other [ __ ] I know the [ __ ] oh that's the song but
00:50:42
yeah but yeah my my haunting has like some murder in it which is like very tragic but it's mostly spookyukyuki
00:50:50
I like it so hope you keep listening and hope you keep it weird you're not so weird that you don't tune in next week
00:50:58
for something haunted in the light bye bye [Music] thank you