Desert Sun - 2/2/1983
Man recaptured following daring prison escape
RIVERSIDE (AP) A mutilation-murder defendant was recaptured early today, one day after he escaped from the Riverside County Jail by leaping from the rooftop to a sidewalk palm tree, then shinnying to the ground. David Richard Campbell of Fullerton, who had pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to murder, was taken into custody at 7:15 a.m. without incident at a freeway offramp in Riverside, said police Lt. Gil Olivarria. ‘‘A passerby from the LA area spotted him” and called authorities, said Olivarria. The passerby may have recognized Campbell from photographs shown on news broadcasts Tuesday night, he said Campbell was being interviewed by detectives today to determine what he had done during his one day of freedom and would be transferred back to jail later, Olivarria said. He didn’t have information on what Campbell had been doing alongside the freeway. “I’m not sure if he was hitchhiking or if he was hiding under the bushes,” Olivarria said. Authorities had been very concerned about what actions Campbell might take, sheriff’s Deputy Dean Bates said Tuesday, describing Campbell as a dangerous schizophrenic. “He’s sworn to kill anybody who participated in the prosecution and his family,” said Bates. Prosecutor Edward Webster said Campbell at various times told investigators he believed he was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, psychic Edgar Cayce and Gen. George Armstrong Custer. Webster said Campbell, who kept a pet vulture he had bleached blond, said he thought the murder victim was the reincarnation of Sitting Bull. Campbell, 38, was awaiting a March 7 trial for the murder of William Raber, 31, of Fullerton, whose decapitated body was found by hikers Nov. 29,1981, in the Vail Lake area of Rancho California, 50 miles southeast of Riverside. Raber, who knew Campbell, had been shot in the heart and his head and hands had been cut off. The remains were not identified until two months later. Campbell was arrested Jan. 12,1982, after a bullet found in the victim’s heart was matched to a gun found in Campbell’s house, deputies said. He was arraigned Nov. 2. Five other prisoners and a corrections officer were in the chain-link-enclosed rooftop exercise area when Campbell broke through the fence, jumped about 4 feet to the tree, then climbed down, apparently cutting his hands on the rough palm bark, said Chief Deputy Roger Denman, The jail is four stories high. “It appears the others created a distraction (an argument) which diverted the attention of the corrections officer,” who looked up to see Campbell just as he jumped to the tree, Denman said. The jail exercise area is surrounded by 9-foot cement walls, topped by an 8-foot, chain-link fence that joins a chain-link roof over the yard, Denman added.
Desert Sun - 6/9/1983
Convicted murderer escapes, is captured
RIVERSIDE (AP) A man convicted of a 1981 dismemberment murder escaped from court during the sanity phase of his trial but was quickly recaptured nearby, David R. Campbell, 38, of Fullerton, convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder in the slaying of William Raber, 31, of Buena Park, bolted Wednesday morning from the courthouse after throwing liquid from a paper cup into the face of the Riverside County sheriff’s deputy guarding him. “We thought it would happen,” said Deputy District Attorney Ed Webster, noting that it was Campbell’s second escape attempt. The fear that Campbell would flee intensified after the conviction, Webster said. Although the judge ordered two sheriff’s deputies for security reasons, they weren’t yet in the courtroom when Campbell escaped, he said. “He was looking at the guard . . . then he threw water or a substance in the face of the deputy and he was out the door,” said San Bernardino psychiatrist Stephen B. Lawrence, a witness at the sanity hearing Deputies who recaptured Campbell returned him to the Riverside County jail. The sanity phase of the trial resumes today, Webster said. During the trial, Campbell had pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Campbell described how he shot Raber in the head and the heart before he cut up the body with a hacksaw. Raber’s dismembered body was found near Vail Lake Nov. 29,1981, but was not identified until an anonymous tipster telephoned police Jan. 11. The day after Raber’s body was found, Campbell was arrested and charged in an unrelated case with child molestation. He was not charged with Raber’s killing for another six months. Campbell testified he murdered Raber to prevent Raber from killing him because Campbell knew Raber had murdered Kerry Patterson, 15. The girl’s skull and three of her bones were found Dec. 27,1980, in Tonner Canyon near the Orange Freeway. “I got the idea he would dump me where he dumped Kerry Patterson, Campbell said.
Desert Sun - 6/9/1983
Convicted killer ruled to be sane; said he was Custer
RIVERSIDE (AP) - A jury has ruled that a man who claimed he was Gen. George Custer in a previous life was sane when he shot and dismembered a friend whom he said was formerly Sitting Bull. Davis Campbell, 38, of Fullerton was convicted last month of the October 1981 murder of William Raber, 31, of Buena Park. Campbell had claimed that Raber was “seductive, charismatic and demonic” and that in a previous life Raber was Sitting Bull and Campbell was Custer in the massacre of the Little Big Horn. Raber also ordered Campbell to kill him, Campbell told the court. He said Raber had killed many people and had to be stopped. Prosecutor Ed Webster said Campbell had a “love-hate” relationship with Raber that lasted almost a dozen years. Webster said that, on the night of the murder, Campbell took Raber home, shot him in the head and heart and then dismembered him with a knife and a hacksaw. On June 1, Campbell tossed a cup of soapy water into a deputy’s face and bolted from Superior Court Judge John Barnard’s courtroom. He was captured by a bailiff about a block away. Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced July 6. He faces a term of 27 years to life for first-degree murder.
