Orange County prosecutors will take another look at evidence in the 1979 rape and murder of a mother in Fountain Valley after an attorney representing a man convicted of the crime contended that the slaying was carried out by the Golden State Killer.
William Lee Evins spent more than 25 years in prison for the brutal killing of 28-year-old Joan Virgina Anderson. Evins died of a heart attack while behind bars in 2013.
Attorney Annee Della Donna, of Laguna Beach, is now arguing that evidence tying Evins to Anderson’s murder is “ridiculously flimsy,” and that the killer’s M.O. more closely matches that of the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, who is awaiting trial for a dozen murders in Orange, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Sacramento counties. The Golden State Killer is suspected of carrying out more than 50 rapes and 100 burglaries across the state since 1974.
On March 8, 1979, Anderson was raped and bludgeoned more than 20 times with a hammer in the master bedroom of her Fountain Valley home. Her husband was away on a business trip. The killer did not harm Anderson’s 6-month-old daughter and 3-year-old son, who were also in the home.
Evins, who was part of a construction crew working on the Anderson home around the time of the killing, was arrested for the murder. Prosecutors initially relied on hypnotized witness testimony, until the state Supreme Court in 1984 ruled such evidence was improper.
Evins and his family were preparing for his release when a controversial jail informant claimed that Evins had confessed to him. Thinking it would lead to a quicker release, Evins took a plea deal rather than face trial, and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
“He always said he was innocent,” Della Donna said Wednesday. “In fact when I called his ex-wife, she answered the phone and said ‘I’ve been waiting 30 years for this phone call, I’ve always known he was innocent.’”
Della Donna, who heads Innocence Rights of Orange County, said she was living about six blocks from Anderson’s home at the time of the killing, and had her own run-in with a man she believed to be the Golden State Killer.
The attorney, who was 17 at the time, said a man tried to abduct her, failing when she ran away, then later drove by her home. About a year ago, Della Donna said, she was searching online when she saw a sketch of the suspected Golden State Killer, who she recognized as the man she believed had attempted to abduct her.
Della Donna and her team at Innocence Rights began looking at other cases in Fountain Valley in that same time frame, and ran across the Anderson killing, she said.
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The attorney noted several aspects of the case that she believes matches the Golden State Killer’s M.O., including a husband who was away at the time, and the fact the victim was bound by meticulously placed cords that the killer took with them. She also noted that the killer is believed to have stayed in the home for hours after the killing, cooking and eating in the kitchen.
“The complete lack of evidence tying William Lee Evins to the Joan Virginia Anderson case is overwhelming. And the facts that relate to the Golden State Killer being responsible for this crime is the reason that my team decided to bring this case to the Orange County District Attorney,” she said.
It isn’t clear whether anything was retained from the crime scene that could forensically tie the killer to Anderson’s murder, Della Donna acknowledged. Both Evins’ and DeAngelo’s DNA are in law enforcement databases for comparison purposes if any DNA can be found from the 1979 killing.
“We hope there is something that will give us DNA evidence,” Della Donna said. “If we get DNA evidence this case is simple. In 1979, they weren’t doing DNA testing. That was much later. However, since Evins’ case went on until 1985, it is our hope that those boxes of evidence were retained and are in the district attorney’s office.”
Prosecutors and investigators will look back at the case file and see if there is an DNA-testable material, as well as look over the other evidence to see if anything was amiss, said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. The work will be handled by a team that is already looking over evidence in preparation for the eventual Golden State Killer prosecution, she added.
“Every since Mr. DeAngelo was arrested, we have been examining old evidence, new evidence to get ready for that case,” Schroeder said. “This will be one of the things we look at.”
Prosecutors said it is still too early to tell if there is any link between the Anderson killing and the Golden State Killer.
The Anderson slaying pre-dates the other murders believed to be tied to the Golden State Killer. DeAngelo has been charged with the 1980 killings of Keith and Patrice Harrington in Dana Point, the 1981 killing of Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine and the 1986 killing of Janelle Cruz, also in Irvine.
