Woman Pleads Not Guilty in Killing of Girl

A woman charged with aiding in the kidnaping and murder of a Chatsworth girl and the attempted murder of the girl’s friend pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Marsha Lynn Ramos, who authorities say was the accomplice of Roland Norman Comtois, pleaded in San Fernando Municipal Court to one count each of murder, attempted murder, sodomy by force, forcible oral copulation, committing a lewd act upon a child and injecting a child with cocaine.

Ramos, 33, also uses her former husband’s last name of Erickson.

In an unrelated matter Wednesday, Ramos pleaded not guilty to a charge of burglarizing her parents’ home in Chatsworth. Ramos’ parents filed a complaint against their daughter after they noticed that their videocassette recorder was missing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn said.

Police matched fingerprints left by the burglar on a rear window of the home with Ramos’ prints, Lynn said.

In the kidnaping case, Wendy Masuhara, 14, and her 13-year-old companion were abducted Sept. 18 while they were walking late at night on a quiet street near their Chatsworth homes. A woman lured them to a motor home by feigning engine trouble and asking for their help, police said. Comtois, police said, was waiting inside.

Wendy’s body was found the next day in an abandoned station wagon in secluded Woolsey Canyon. The survivor, who was found by motorists as she walked along the road bleeding and in a daze, is recovering from a gunshot wound in the neck but has returned to junior high school, Lynn said.

Comtois, 57, has been held without bail in County Jail on the same charges as Ramos since he was arrested Sept. 22 by police who found him near Dodger Stadium and shot him in the back and leg when he tried to run away.

Ramos’ attorney, Dennis E. Mulcahy, said his client is “as much a victim as the two girls.” He said statements by the surviving youngster to the police indicate that Ramos was “a very unwilling participant” in the incident.

Ramos is being held without bail at Sybil Brand Institute. A preliminary hearing on the murder charges is scheduled Feb. 29 for Ramos and Comtois.