SAN DIEGO (CNS) — A man accused of killing a woman in Scripps Ranch more than 35 years ago is tied to her slaying by DNA evidence and incriminating statements he made after his arrest, a prosecutor told jurors Monday, while a defense attorney said the case against her client arose from an inadequate police investigation and is reliant on flimsy evidence.
Opening statements were delivered Monday morning in the murder trial of 65-year-old Randall Oyler, who is charged with killing Margaret Orozco Jackson, whose body was discovered on a hillside off Scripps Ranch Boulevard on July 11, 1990.
See previous coverage: Family of 1990 San Diego murder victim reacts before suspect's court appearance
Jackson was severely beaten and strangled, and a rope was wrapped twice around her neck, Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg told a downtown San Diego jury on what coincidentally would have been Jackson's 83rd birthday.
Oyler, who was 29 years old on the day Jackson's body was discovered, was not identified as a suspect until DNA testing conducted decades later linked him to DNA found beneath the victim's fingernails, as well as from other areas of her body, the prosecutor said.
Oyler was already in custody for an alleged probation violation when he was arrested in 2023 on suspicion of murdering Jackson.
Lindberg said that while in custody, Oyler was placed in a cell with an undercover jail operative posing as an inmate.
In video clips played in court, the two men can be heard discussing why Oyler was arrested.
At one point, Oyler says, "She scratched me."
In another clip, the operative asks Oyler if he "just left her there," and Oyler responds that he "threw her down a hill."
But Oyler's defense attorney, Kara Oien, said none of the statements her client made amounted to confessions or admissions to murdering Jackson. She said Oyler's statements were "vague remarks" made in response to the operative's prodding questions about Oyler's case.
The attorney also said the DNA evidence only told part of the story, as its presence alone couldn't show that Oyler had any involvement in Jackson's death.
"The science can't tell you how the DNA got there, when the DNA got there, why the DNA's there. The DNA cannot prove violence, and the DNA cannot prove murder," Oien said.
The defense attorney said that until the DNA testing was conducted decades later, Oyler was not at all on the radar of investigators, who she said overlooked critical leads and failed to collect or test a number of items that could have led to answers back in 1990.
Oien said, "You will not hear any reliable evidence that Mr. Oyler caused this death."
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