One day, Bruce heard a scraping sound from the other side of the wall. It was Hughes, digging a hole with a metal object.
Lisker said Hughes, speaking through the tiny opening, befriended him by posing as a concerned Christian and offering to help him prove his innocence.
Lisker said he told Hughes all about his case and let him read copies of police reports, pushing the rolled-up documents through the hole in the wall. Hughes contacted police, saying he had information to share.
Monsue went to the jail to interview him July 6, 1983. Hughes told the detective that Lisker had admitted to bludgeoning his mother after she caught him rifling through her purse -- a scenario that mirrored the facts laid out in police reports.
Hughes offered to testify against Lisker in return for a reduction in his sentence. Rabichow, the prosecutor, agreed.
Lisker's defense soon suffered another setback.
His attorney, Dennis E. Mulcahy, hoped to convince the jury that someone else had committed the crime: Mike Ryan. But first, Mulcahy would have to show that there was a solid basis for the theory -- more than "mere suspicion."
In arguments before Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard G. Kolostian, Mulcahy pointed out that Ryan had been at the Lisker home the day before the killing. He emphasized that the grocery money missing from Dorka's purse had never been recovered, suggesting that Ryan might have made off with it.
But he failed to mention that Ryan had lied to Monsue about his whereabouts at the time of the killing. Nor did he tell the judge that Ryan had spontaneously admitted stabbing someone that morning.
Mulcahy, now a Superior Court commissioner, declined to be interviewed for this article.
Rabichow argued in court that Mulcahy had failed to meet his burden of proof. The judge agreed, and granted the prosecutor's motion to exclude any mention of Ryan.
The jury would not hear a word about him.
Manipulative, Volatile
Five days into the trial, Kolostian said he would consider allowing Lisker to serve a juvenile sentence if he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Lisker would be released at age 25.
Mulcahy urged him to do it. Bruce resisted. Then Bob Johnson, a lawyer and family friend, spoke to him.
"He got right in my face and said I had to take the deal. 'They are going to convict you of first-degree murder if you don't,' " Bruce recalled.
