Defendant in Storage-Locker Slayings Fires His Lawyers

An Indonesian businessman accused of slaying three people and stashing their bodies in a Northridge storage facility may no longer have any lawyers to defend him, a newspaper reported this weekend.

Harnoko Dewantono fired his lawyers minutes before his trial began Thursday in Indonesia, according to the Associated Press. He named another attorney, Amir Syamsuddin, during his court appearance. But in an interview with the Jakarta Post, Syamsuddin said he hadn’t agreed to defend Dewantono, the AP said. Dewantono is accused of killing his friend, Gina Sutan Anwar, 28, his brother, Eri Tri Harto Darmawan, 26, and an Indian business partner, Suresh Mirchandani.

They all disappeared in 1992. It took a month for the coroner’s office to identify the victims, whose decayed bodies were found Aug. 10, 1994, in a U-Haul storage center after its contents were auctioned.

Police say Dewantono first killed Mirchandani, 40, over a business dispute. They say he killed Anwar for money and killed his brother because he knew of the other two murders.

The Jakarta Post said Dewantono may be stalling his trial with his lawyer problems, the AP said.

Dewantono, who ran a small business in Los Angeles, was arrested in Jakarta in January 1995 on charges of passport forgery. He has been sentenced to two years in prison. He now stands trial on murder charges. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.