Con Man’s Murder Trial Starts Today

Opening statements and testimony will be presented today in the murder trial of a convicted con man accused of killing an El Cajon woman whose bones later were found in a remote area.

On Friday, a jury was sworn in to hear the case of Raymond Stone, 42, who is accused of killing Anita Dalfoss, 50, who was last seen alive on March 14, 1989.

Her skeletal remains--minus her skull--were discovered in the summer of 1989 near the Lake Henshaw area.

Dalfoss lived at the Premier Manor Retirement Home in El Cajon and had told her daughters she was dating a man named Nick Martinelli, an alias reportedly used by Stone.

Stone is serving a nine-year sentence for bilking other women he had romanced while using the Martinelli alias. Additionally, he was sentenced last year to a consecutive five-year term for trying to escape from the El Cajon jail. During the escape, he fell two stories and injured his back.

A cause of death could not be determined for Dalfoss, because of the decomposition of the body.

Expected to testify for the prosecution is a 72-year-old El Cajon woman who said Stone left her in the same area where Dalfoss was found in 1981.

The woman testified at Stone’s preliminary hearing in October, 1989, and said he took her there to watch the sunset and left her there in the dark.

She fell down a hillside, but when she eventually arrived home, she discovered her house had been burglarized. The woman said Stone called himself Nick Martinello.

Jury selection began Wednesday with San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos and the attorneys.

Stone is also charged with kidnaping Dalfoss for extortion, and with the special circumstance allegation that Dalfoss was killed during a robbery.

If he’s convicted of first-degree murder with the special circumstance, the district attorney’s office will be seeking a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

In January, Exarhos denied defense requests to dismiss the kidnap for extortion and special circumstances charges when Stone’s attorney, Sharyn Leonard, argued that there was insufficient evidence for those counts.