SAN FRANCISCO — After 30 years on death row, a man convicted of three murders during a crime spree in San Diego was awarded a new trial.The California Supreme Court on Monday overturned Billy Ray Waldon’s convictions and death sentence and ordered a new trial. The justices ruled unanimously that a lower court judge improperly allowed Waldon to represent himself at trial despite evidence that his ability to think clearly was impaired.
The December 1985 crime spree of which he was convicted included three murders in San Diego. Dawn Ellerman was fatally shot Dec. 7 in her home, which was then set on fire; her 13-year-old daughter, Erin Ellerman, died of smoke inhalation after going into the burning house to try to save her mother. On Dec. 20, Gordon Wells was fatally shot as he worked on his car.
After ballistics evidence connected the San Diego attacks to previous shootings in Oklahoma, a federal warrant was issued for Waldon. In May 1986, he was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. One judge, citing Waldon’s “mental disorder,” denied his motion to represent himself, but a subsequent judge granted the motion without considering the earlier ruling or evidence that Waldon suffered from paranoia and delusions and was not competent to conduct his own defense, the Supreme Court’s ruling said.