New details emerged this morning in the case of convicted National Guard murderer Scott Ansman after a Superior Court judge postponed the start of a civil case the victim’s family has brought against him, the state of California and his military employers.
Since shortly after Mr. Ansman, a virtual lifer in the National Guard, battered JoAnn Crystal Harris, 29 years old, to death on the afternoon of Aug. 24, 2007, the Culver City Police Dept., routinely has been faulted for not sufficiently “protecting” Ms. Harris after being warned her life was at risk.
Wrong, says Robert McNeil Jr., attorney for Martha Lou Harris, mother of the victim.
Enter one of the mysterious figures in the case, National Guard veteran Erik Hein.
Alarmed by what he believed to be the lethal intention of his married colleague Mr. Ansman, to kill his girlfriend, Mr. Hein informed the police of Mr. Ansman’s murderous signs three weeks before the homicide.
Only he did not know the girl’s name.
This was where the story became fuzzy. If the cops had a sniff of Mr. Ansman’s desire, why didn’t they do something?
Answer, according to Mr. McNeill, is they did not have Ms. Harris’s identity.
“If the National Guard had gotten back to the police right away, the police would have had plenty of opportunity to protect her,” Mr. McNeill said.
“The Police Dept. says that Hein did not get back to them with Ms. Harris’s identity until Thursday the 23rd, the day before she was killed.
“All that time,” Mr. McNeill said with evident disgust, “the National Guard did nothing to try and provide her identity?”
Why not?
Government bureaucracy?
Carelessness?
Those are jackpot questions.
Mr. Hein, it is strongly believed, can richly answer them.
But he is nowhere to be found by the plaintiff’s side of the pending civil case.
Two of the defendants — the state Attorney General’s office and the National Guard — presumably know his whereabouts.
They, however, are not telling, and Superior Court Judge Kevin C. Brazile ruled three weeks ago that the defense does not have to produce him.
A crucial witness in last year’s murder trial that saw Mr. Ansman handed a sentence of life without parole, Mr. Hein abruptly dropped from sight in late June or early July.
Mr. Hein’s employers at the National Guard have been as evasive as he. They told this newspaper only that the veteran is away with permission, and they have no idea when he will return.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hein’s personal life was rocked by the death of his wife following the trial that ended 16 months ago.
What would Mr. Hein testify if he could he tracked down?
“That,” said Mr. McNeill, “is what this trial is all about.”
Change in Plans
After this morning’s delay, next Monday, Oct. 4, is the new starting date for the Ansman-Harris civil trial.
