Judge refuses to release man convicted of dismembering friend

An L.A. County Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected a bid to free a man convicted in a 1995 dismemberment murder, questioning the credibility of a key witness who recanted her original testimony in the case.

Edward Contreras, now 40, was found guilty along with Scott Taylor of beating, beheading and cutting up a friend, Frederick Walker, with a chain saw and a machete at a backyard barbecue in Santa Clarita and stealing $635 from the victim. Contreras was accused of helping to clean up blood and body parts from the scene and driving his car to a remote area of Bouquet Canyon to dispose of the remains.

“To rule in favor, I would have to believe that [Contreras] had nothing to do with the death of Freddy Walker,” Judge Gregory A. Dohi said in turning down the habeas corpus petition brought by the California Innocence Project.

Michelle Dresser, Walker’s sister, held her face in her hands after the ruling was delivered and sobbed.

“I feel for his family,” she said later of Contreras, who has served almost 15 years of his life term. “But he is where he needs to be.”

At issue was testimony by Lisa Garringer, then 17, who had been present at the murder scene and implicated Contreras in the killing. Garringer officially recanted her testimony in a habeas hearing last August, contending she had been coerced by sheriff’s investigators. She also said she felt it was unfair that Contreras would be punished as harshly as Taylor “because it was Taylor who killed Mr. Walker.”

Taylor, who confessed to the murder, is also serving a life term.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Juan Mejia said any other ruling by Dohi would be inconsistent with the felony murder rule in which participants of a crime are just as guilty as the person committing it.

Dohi “went through all of the evidence and the truth was expressed in his ruling,” Mejia said.

Dohi called Garringer and her mother, Rosalyn Blaser, “maddeningly inconsistent” about what the sheriff’s investigators did to get them to give the testimony. Blaser had been present at the questioning because she had picked her daughter up from the cabin where the murder took place.

In his written ruling, Dohi said: “To the extent that they testified that the investigators threatened to deport or detain Ms. Blaser … I do not find the witnesses credible.”

Attorney Justin Brooks, director of the Innocence Project who was representing Contreras in court Tuesday, said it was “difficult to hear Lisa was responsible” for false testimony.

The Innocence Project, which believed Garringer’s recanting when it took up the petition in 2009, had contended that Contreras helped Taylor dispose of the body because he was afraid of Taylor and suffered from Stockholm syndrome, in which a person held captive will side with the captor.

But Dohi discounted that.

“People under stress do weird things,” he said, pointing to testimony that Contreras and Taylor had been “play-fighting over a wad of bills” days after the murder.

“I can’t attribute [his actions] to post-traumatic stress disorder or Stockholm syndrome.”

Garringer’s efforts to help Contreras after years of guilt may be valid, Dohi said, “but I don’t think this court is the best place to decide that.”

dalina.castellanos@latimes.com