SANTA ANA — John Joseph Famalaro, one of Orange County's most notorious murderers, was sentenced to death Friday by a Superior Court judge who spoke of the terror that his victim, Denise Huber, must have felt during the final moments of her life.
"Just imagine what was going through her mind," Judge John J. Ryan said, as he described how the 23-year-old woman was abducted from the shoulder of the Corona del Mar Freeway, where her car had broken down late at night, then taken to a Laguna Hills warehouse where she was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death.
Famalaro, 40, will be transferred from Orange County Jail to San Quentin State Prison within 10 days. He showed no emotion as the judge imposed the sentence, and did not look at Huber's family members when they spoke in court.
"I cannot adequately describe the pain, agony and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that I experienced," the victim's mother, Ione Huber, told the judge. "[It] turned into days, then turned into months, then turned into years."
"I miss her more than words can describe. My heart aches," she added.
The judge noted the "extraordinary" impact the crime had on the young woman's parents, who spearheaded a nationwide search for their daughter after she disappeared on her way home from a rock concert on June 3, 1991. The rear tire of her car blew out on the freeway less than three miles from her parents' Newport Beach home.
Huber was missing for three years before her nude, handcuffed and bludgeoned body was discovered in July 1994, preserved in a home freezer that Famalaro kept running in an overdue rental truck parked outside his Arizona home.
"Without argument, [the parents] made an extraordinary effort to locate their daughter," Ryan said. "Both parents had difficulty with their work, eating and sleeping. But they always had hope. They went through years of not knowing. These were years of not knowing and hope."
Ione Huber came to court with her 27-year-old son, Jeff. Dennis Huber, the victim's father, who attended each day of Famalaro's six-week trial with his wife, was unable to make the trip from their home in North Dakota, where the couple moved three years ago to try to escape painful reminders of their daughter's disappearance.
On Friday, Ione Huber said she and her husband are planning to move back to Orange County soon. They want to live nearer their son and grandchild, as well as many friends.
