Judge reviews Carlsbad murder conviction

By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 24, 2007 11:45 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO -- A Superior Court judge has ordered the district attorney's office to file documents to show him why he should not set aside a doctor's first-degree murder conviction for the death of a woman 16 years ago in a Carlsbad motel.

Attorneys for Samson Dubria, 44, allege in documents filed with the court that prosecutors had medical records at the time of his 1993 trial that could have supported Dubria's claims of innocence, but withheld them from Dubria's attorneys until 2006.

Forensic evidence, including the medical records, "establishes a medical cause of death" for Jennifer Klapper, 20, of Cincinnati, Dubria's attorneys allege in court documents.

The deputy medical examiner who performed the autopsy in the case, Dr. Leena Jariwala, also never saw records of Klapper's medical history and "committed gross malpractice" in declaring the case a homicide without seeing them, Dubria's attorneys allege in court documents.

Jariwala could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. Dubria's attorneys allege in court documents that Jariwala has declined to speak to their investigators.

Timothy Casserly, the prosecutor at Dubria's trial, became a judge in 1996 and remains on the Superior Court bench in Vista. A section of the state's canons of judicial ethics prohibits judges from making any public comments about any pending proceedings in any court.

Deputy District Attorney Richard Armstrong of the district attorney's appellate division said Tuesday that prosecutors will file a response with the court. The district attorney's office disagrees with the facts Dubria's attorneys have alleged in court documents, Armstrong said.

"This is the first step in a long process," Armstrong said.

Dubria was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1993 for Klapper's death Aug. 16, 1991, at the Allstar Inn in Carlsbad.

Dubria, a New Jersey resident at the time, and Klapper were traveling together in Southern California and stayed together at the motel.

A medical library employee at the Ohio hospital where Dubria had worked as a resident physician, Klapper told friends and relatives her relationship with Dubria was platonic, but Dubria told police they had dated and had sex the night she died.

Prosecutors contended Dubria gave Klapper chloroform, an anesthetic drug, with the intent of raping her and accidentally administered a fatal dose. Dubria said at his trial that he did not know how she died and denied having chloroform.

Dubria's attorneys allege in court documents that Klapper died from a sudden cardiac arrest and that no medical explanation for it was apparent at the time.

Attorney Tracy Emblem, who began representing Dubria in 2004, alleges in court documents that she obtained copies of Klapper's medical records from the district attorney's office in 2006 after using a 2003 law that allows inmates sentenced to death or life in prison without parole to obtain evidence from law enforcement officials so they can reinvestigate their cases.

Klapper's medical history included episodes of rapid heart beat and heart palpitations, for which she had gone to the emergency room in Ohio. That information was not provided to Dubria's trial attorney or attorneys who have represented him on multiple appeals that have, to date, been unsuccessful, Emblem alleges.

"I'm hoping that, perhaps, the district attorney will look at what we've got and evaluate this evidence," Emblem said. "The main issue is that the medical examiner who did the autopsy never looked at the medical records before opining on the cause of death."

Emblem also alleges in court documents that "minute" amounts of chloroform were found in Klapper's bodily tissues and fluids and "more likely" were a result of contamination in a lab than a result of Dubria using the drug on her. Blood and tissue samples were stored in plastic containers that are more susceptible to contamination instead of glass containers, and chloroform is a common lab reagent, Emblem alleges in court documents.

Previous California Supreme Court decisions require judges to issue orders to show cause why a conviction should not be overturned if a judge, assuming a defendant's allegations are true, believes, as a result, that the defendant has a case.

Judge Richard S. Whitney issued such an order in Dubria's case on July 16, providing the district attorney's office 30 days to respond. Dubria's attorneys will then have 30 days to file a reply before Whitney decides whether to schedule a hearing or grant or deny the request to set aside Dubria's conviction based on the documents submitted to him.

-- Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.

Links:

http://www.free-drsamdubria.com/

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/coa/newopinions.nsf/64AFEB5664AFD59288256E5A007078C2/$file/9855914.pdf?openelement

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/coa/newopinions.nsf/04485f8dcbd4e1ea882569520074e698/32cfa515e1f7682e88256e5a00718454?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,Dubria

Previous articles:

Appeals court upholds Carlsbad murder conviction

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