Ex-LAPD Det. Lazarus Found Guilty of Murder

A former Los Angeles police detective was convicted of first-degree murder Thursday for killing her ex-boyfriend's wife in Van Nuys just over 26 years ago.

Stephanie Lazarus, 51, shot 29-year-old nursing supervisor Sherri Rasmussen three times in the chest on Feb. 24, 1986, just three months after the victim married Lazarus' one-time love interest, John Ruetten.

The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated for about eight hours over the course of three days before reaching its verdict.

Members of Lazarus' family quickly left the courtroom after the verdict was read. Ruetten sat with his eyes closed in the back row of the downtown Los Angeles courtroom, clutching the hand of Rasmussen's mother.

Earlier today, the jury's foreman sent a note, writing it was unclear whether the panel should be deciding between first-degree murder, second-degree murder and acquittal or just between first-degree murder and acquittal alone.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry told jurors they can consider first-degree and second-degree murder, along with acquittal. Less than an hour later, the jury indicated it had reached a verdict.

Jurors, however, opted for first-degree murder -- not the lesser count of second-degree murder. Lazarus will be sentenced May 4.

Although Rasmussen's father insisted shortly after the killing that police investigate Lazarus -- who had been an officer for two years at the time of the woman's death -- the case went cold until 2004, when the coroner was asked to retest DNA from a bite mark on the victim, and when the test was finally conducted, it was determined the DNA belonged to a female.

Lazarus, an art theft investigator, retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after she was arrested by LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division detectives at the department's downtown headquarters in June 2009, largely as a result of the DNA evidence from the bite mark on Rasmussen's arm.

She has remained jailed since then in lieu of $10 million bail.

During closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Shannon Presby  told jurors that "overwhelming evidence," including DNA from the bite mark, links Lazarus to the killing, but defense attorney Mark Overland countered that the evidence pointed to her innocence.

Presby said there were only two explanations for Lazarus' DNA being found in a bite mark on Rasmussen's arm: she either "bit Sherri when she was attacking her" or someone in the coroner's office planted the evidence to try to frame the veteran police detective.

"That item of evidence ... cannot be trusted or relied upon because its integrity has been compromised," Overland said Monday, referring to a tear in an envelope containing the tube with the DNA sample from the bite mark. He repeatedly called the rest of the prosecution's case "fluff and filler that proves nothing."

Presby said the evidence showed that Lazarus "loved John (Ruetten) and she loved him for a long time, since at least college" and kept those feelings hidden until after Ruetten became seriously involved with the woman who would become his wife. He said Lazarus staged the crime scene to make it look like botched burglary.

Lazarus had been in a sexual relationship with Ruetten, whom she met in college, but he testified during the trial that he never considered her his girlfriend and continued to date other women while he was seeing her.

Ruetten and Rasmussen were married Nov. 23, 1985. Three months later, the Glendale Adventist Medical Center nursing supervisor was shot three times in the chest at the couple's Balboa Boulevard home.

–City News Service