The Trial of Detective Stephanie Lazarus

 Did a veteran LAPD detective commit a heinous murder decades earlier in a case that went cold?

The Murder of Sherri Rasmussen

While an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1978 to 1982, John Ruetten occasionally dated fellow UCLA student Stephanie Lazarus. Ruetten never believed that his relationship with Lazarus was serious, as he called it, "necking and fooling around." In court, he later testified that they had sex "twenty to thirty times" between 1981 and 1984 but that she was never his girlfriend. On Ruetten's 25th birthday, Lazarus arranged a surprise party, not knowing that he had been dating other women or that he had developed a serious relationship with a woman named Sherri Rasmussen, a graduate of Loma Linda University. When she learned about his relationship with Rasmussen, Lazarus was disheartened. "I'm truly in love with John, and the past year has really torn me up," Lazarus wrote to Ruetten's mother in August 1985. "I wish it didn't end the way it did, and I don't think I'll ever understand his decision." When Ruetten announced his engagement to Rasmussen, it led her into a state of depression.

At this point, Lazarus was a patrol officer at the LAPD who aspired to rise in the ranks and become a detective. On February 24, 1986, John Ruetten returned home and found broken glass on the driveway. In addition, he discovered that the BMW he bought for Rasmussen as an engagement gift was missing. Inside, Ruetten found Rasmussen dead on the living room floor, shot three times. There were signs of a struggle, such as a porcelain vase that had apparently been broken over Rasmussen's head before the shooting, a bloody handprint next to the burglar alarm's panic button, and a toppled credenza. It appeared that someone at least attempted to bind Rasmussen at one point. She had defensive wounds and a bruise on her face that seemed to have been inflicted by the muzzle of a gun. The gun had been fired through a blanket to mask the sound. The investigating officer also observed a bite mark on Rasmussen's arm and took a swab from it. The case went unsolved as the DNA from the swabs never matched with anybody. The case was believed to be a robbery gone wrong. In 2009, the case was investigated again when LAPD investigators found a clue that linked a possible motive to Stephanie Lazarus, a senior detective who investigated art thefts. They found a discarded coffee that Lazarus drank out of, and they found a DNA match to the swab taken from the bit mark on Rasmussen by investigators in 1986. After interrogating Lazarus, they arrested her for the murder of Sherri Rasmussen. 

The Trial of Stephanie Lazarus

The trial began in early 2012 and was presided by Judge Robert J. Perry. The prosecution was led by Shannon Presby and Paul Nunez, who opened the trial by stating, "A bite, a bullet, a gun barrel, and a broken heart. That's the evidence that will prove to you that defendant Stephanie Lazarus murdered Sherri Rasmussen." The prosecution wished to portray Stephanie Lazarus as a jealous woman who decided to kill Sherri Rasmussen to eliminate her from John Ruetten's life. The crux of the prosecution's case was the testimony of John Ruetten. In this vital testimony, he recounted his sexual encounters with Lazarus, calling it a "mistake." The defense was led by Mark Overland, who wished to reaffirm the original belief that Rasmussen's death was a robbery gone wrong and disprove the notion that Lazarus was a violent and jealous woman. Overland emphasized the similar burglary that occurred shortly after Rasmussen's murder and attempted to connect it to the botched burglary theory. He also highlighted evidence that was not analyzed, such as a bloody fingerprint on one of the walls, to suggest that other suspects had not been adequately excluded from consideration. Both prosecution and defense reiterated their themes in closing arguments. After showing the jury of eight women and four men photographs of a beaten, bloodied Rasmussen, prosecutor Paul Nunez told them, "It wasn't a fair fight ... This was prey caught in a cage with a predator." After several days of deliberations, 52-year-old Stephanie Lazarus was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. After credit for time served before the trial, she will be eligible for parole in December 2034.