A murder charge has been dismissed against an Oahu prison inmate for the beating and strangulation death 45 years ago of a Northern California park ranger who was on the Big Island for her dream vacation.
Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota on Wednesday dismissed the charge against 73-year-old Steven Ray Simpson. He was accused of the murder of Valerie Ann Warshay, a 26-year-old woman whose nude body was found on April 23, 1978, by a 10-year-old girl picnicking with her family at Harry K. Brown Park in Kalapana.
According to police, Warshay had been last seen alive at about 10 p.m. the night before, talking to two men in the park. According to police, Warshay, who was camping in a coconut grove in the park, declined the men’s invitation to join them.
The park no longer exists, having been inundated by a 1990 lava flow.
Simpson was indicted by a Hilo grand jury in June 2022 for the cold-case murder and pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The dismissal of the murder charge was without prejudice, which means prosecutors are free to re-indict Simpson, who is known as “Stretch.”
The motion to dismiss the charge, filed by Honolulu defense attorney Keith Shigetomi, described the evidence used by prosecutors to indict Simpson as “incompetent” and “hearsay.”
A blue tarp Warshay’s body was allegedly lying on and “pubic combings” purportedly collected as evidence from Warshay’s body were described as “inadmissible and incompetent” in Shigetomi’s motion, which was filed in March.
The prosecutor’s presentation to the grand jury relied on a fingerprint taken from the tarp, which they identified as Simpson’s, and DNA analysis of semen collected from the pubic combings, which reportedly came from Warshay’s body, the motion states.
According to the motion, East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Section Detective Derek Morimoto, who had worked on the cold case murder for about five years, told the grand jury he found the tarp in an evidence locker, but had no knowledge about whether Warshay had, in fact, been lying on the tarp.
The motion states that former police officer William Perreira, who assisted now deceased police detective John Kalawe with the case in 1978, testified before the grand jury, but “did not testify that he saw the tarp when he arrived at the crime scene, nor did he testify as to whether police recovered a tarp.”
“The tarp and its forensic value was inadmissible and incompetent evidence,” the motion states.
The document also stated Perreira didn’t testify that pubic combings were recovered from Warshay, and there was “no evidence the purported pubic combings” analyzed for DNA came from Warshay.
According to the motion, the “incompetent evidence denied (Simpson) of his right to a fair grand jury proceeding,” and concluded that there was “insufficient evidence to support the finding of probable cause” to try Simpson for Warshay’s murder.
“Before evidence can be considered by the grand jury, the prosecution must establish that the evidence it wanted to rely on was admissible,” Shigetomi told the Tribune-Herald after Wednesday’s hearing. “Without the proper authentication, evidence is not admissible. The prosecution failed to establish the proper authentication.
“Judge Kubota properly recognized the prosecution’s failure and dismissed the indictment.”
County Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen on Wednesday said he’s “disappointed in the court’s decision.”
“In bringing forth charges for a 1978 cold case homicide, we understood that there would be tremendous obstacles to overcome,” Waltjen said. “Nevertheless, we will not let the court’s decision deter our efforts to continue to seek justice for victims like Valerie Warshay and her family.”
Asked if his office would re-indict Simpson, Waltjen said he’d await Kubota’s written findings of fact and conclusions of law explaining his decision “before determining our next course of action.”
Simpson currently is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for the strangulation murder of 24-year-old Mary Catherine “Kathy” Drapp, a University of Hawaii at Hilo student whose body was found Dec. 11, 1978, in a field in Fern Forest, a Puna subdivision where Simpson lived at the time.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.