Victory Becomes Defeat : Woman Sees Court Free Mate’s Convicted Killer

It was just a formality; the conclusion foregone.

Judge Robert R. Devich of the Los Angeles Superior Court called for convicted murderer Eugene Clarence Hartman to enter his courtroom.

“He’ll walk in with a smile, watch,” Ruth Langlos whispered, her tone bitter.

The balding Hartman, 57, greeted his attorney with a cheerful grin. Two years ago, Hartman was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1976 death of Downey psychologist John Langlos and sentenced to six years in prison.

Now he was about to be set free.

For Ruth Langlos, Hartman’s release Thursday was a dark, ironic anticlimax.

After struggling for seven years to bring to justice the man she was convinced had murdered her husband--a struggle she thought had ended with the jury’s guilty verdict--Langlos watched helplessly as another interpretation of justice prevailed.

A state Court of Appeal in July reversed Hartman’s conviction, ruling that he had been denied due process, because of the long delay between Langlos’ death and Hartman’s trial. Hartman’s release was assured after the state Supreme Court recently declined to consider a prosecution appeal.

“When he was sentenced, I celebrated and said it’s all over,” Langlos said.

John Langlos was found in his blood-spattered office in Downey on Feb. 2, 1976. There was a gash in his head and his body was wedged partly beneath a desk. His wallet was gone.

A few days later, Hartman, a psychologist who sometimes worked with Langlos in the same clinic, was arrested by Oakland police and charged with murder, after he tried to buy an airline ticket with Langlos’ credit card.

However, Hartman was released after a deputy medical examiner ruled that Langlos had died of natural causes. Authorities theorized that Langlos had suffered heart failure and fell, striking his head on his desk, and that Hartman had found and looted the body. Hartman served 36 days in jail before he was released.

It was then that Ruth Langlos embarked on her campaign that included $50,000 spent for independent autopsies that suggested the cause of death was murder. However, then-Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi refused to change the death certificate, a necessary step before new murder charges could be filed against Hartman.

Finally, in May, 1982, a coroner’s jury concluded that Langlos had died of “undetermined causes . . . at the hands of another.” That led the district attorney’s office in February, 1983, to file a new murder charge against Hartman.

In the meantime, Hartman had spent four years in prison after being convicted in 1977 of an assault on an elderly man in San Diego.

This time, Hartman was convicted of murdering Langlos and was sent back to prison.

For Ruth Langlos, there were TV appearances, plans for a book and even a TV movie.

Key Witnesses

The Court of Appeal, in overturning Hartman’s 1983 conviction, noted that the long delay may have deprived Hartman’s defense of key witnesses. The court also cited that the coroner’s office had “pathetically misplaced” Langlos’ heart and brain.

“The combination of circumstances chronicled here violated fundamental fairness, the touchstone of due process,” the court concluded.

“It’s a technicality,” said Stirling Norris, deputy district attorney. “The bottom line is that they have put a dangerous man back on the streets.”

Deputy Public Defender Michael Clark, Hartman’s attorney, said Thursday: “I can feel for Mrs. Langlos. But I feel justice has been served. We’re talking about the fundamental right to be tried in a timely manner.”

Clark pointed out that in any case, Hartman was due to be released in three months largely because his six-year sentence had been reduced by half for good behavior.

Ruth Langlos said she is still hoping to persuade the Court of Appeal to reconsider. Even Norris conceded, however, that she “probably has no chance.”

“I’m almost at the end of the line,” Langlos said Thursday. “It’s difficult to relive the past. But it is cathartic. I think I’ve learned to accept it, if it’s God’s plan.”