Interesting lead from the comments section of the Seattle piece leads to this article:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-08-07/local/me-3831_1_execution-style-murders
Deborah J Stalder was a witness to murder & got immunity for her testimony
The killer was from
North Hollywood
'84 Execution-Style Slaying : N. Hollywood Man Guilty in Death
May 17, 1988|GABE FUENTES | Times Staff Writer
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A North Hollywood man was convicted of murder and kidnaping Monday in the 1984 execution-style slaying of a man described by prosecutors as a fellow drug dealer.
After a three-month trial and four days of deliberation, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury found Timothy Patrick Hoban, 33, guilty in the shooting death of Jon Cassanelli, 28, of North Hollywood.
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"Hoban and an accomplice killed Cassanelli in a dispute about drugs and possibly about the victim's girlfriend, who became the prosecution's chief witness, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen A. Baron.
The girlfriend, Deborah Stalder, testified that she saw Hoban fire a single shot at the victim from a .41-caliber revolver after he and Steven Zimmer had taken Cassanelli and her to a remote area near Kanan Road in Agoura on Jan. 15, 1984. Stalder told the jury she later persuaded Hoban not to kill her as well.
Zimmer, 39, of North Hollywood, in 1985 was convicted of murder and kidnaping in the case and is serving a state prison sentence of
32 years to life."