Detective Convicted of Killing Her Ex's Wife 26 Years Ago

FLASH21 · Mar 9, 2012

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20577219,00.html

Detective Convicted of Killing Her Ex's Wife 26 Years Ago

A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday convicted former LAPD art detective Stephanie Lazarus of first-degree murder in the 1986 slaying of nursing administrator Sherri Rasmussen, who at the time had just married Lazarus's ex-boyfriend.

During the month-long trial, prosecutor Paul Nunez told jurors that Lazarus's "grief" as a scorned woman after a failed relationship with boyfriend John Ruetten and Lazarus's skills as a police officer provided the "perfect cocktail" for murder.

"The motive in this case was jealousy – jealousy toward Sherri," Nunez argued. "The ring on Sherri's finger was supposed to be hers. It was ripped from her."

For years, police assumed Rasmussen died during a violent robbery at her home – even though Rasmussen's parents repeatedly told police that Lazarus had threatened Rasmussen at her workplace, telling her, "If I can't have John, nobody can."

However, Lazarus, now 51, was not arrested at the time. Instead, she remained with the LAPD and became one of only two detectives in the department's elite art theft detail.

In 2009, detectives decided to reopen the case, applying DNA technology that was unavailable so many years earlier. Lazarus, now married to another LAPD detective, was followed to a Costco, where investigators snatched her soda cup from the trash and determined that her DNA matched saliva in a bite mark on Rasmussen's arm.

Brutally BeatenDuring the trial last month, Ruetten, 53, tearfully testified that he had been friends and occasional lovers with Lazarus starting when they were students at UCLA.

He testified that after Lazarus learned of his engagement to Rasmussen, she summoned him to her condo, where they slept together and Lazarus said she was still in love with him.

Ruetten testified that when he came home from work on Feb. 24, 1986, his wife was dead on the living room floor, brutally beaten and shot three times in the chest.

He said he didn't think Lazarus might be responsible, and although they slept together a couple of more times about four years later they did not develop a serious relationship.

Defense attorney Mark Overland suggested that Lazarus was innocent and that the coroner's office framed the detective or mishandled the evidence. He called the prosecution's case "fluff and filler that proves nothing.'"

Lazarus, who has been in jail since her 2009 arrest, faces 27 years to life in prison when she returns for sentencing on May 4.
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b****es be crazy....

VanityHalfBlack · Mar 9, 2012

Surfguy · Mar 9, 2012

My suggestion is do not drill into the link and look at her pic. I tried to imagine what she looked like by stripping the 26 years away and the result came back to her still being ugly as hell.

Just pretend the women involved were all hotter than hell and save yourself the link click.

heypartner · Mar 9, 2012

Never ever date a cop or a prison guard.

RocketMan Tex · Mar 9, 2012

heypartner said: ↑

Never ever date a cop or a prison guard.
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Or a female musician....or a chick that's been married and divorced 3 times by the time she's 45....or.....:grin:

VanityHalfBlack · Mar 9, 2012

heypartner said: ↑

Never ever date a cop or a prison guard.
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Or a chick who sell Knives, or Laos Chick, or Chick with prison tatts or....:grin:

The Captain · Mar 9, 2012

Another good reason to re-examine older cases with DNA technology. It's getting cheaper and cheaper by the day.

SwoLy-D · Mar 9, 2012

IBHCSIPs

jank1434 · Mar 9, 2012

Generic "what was she doing out of the kitchen" post :grin:

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