1QA - The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 8, 1995
MAnotilwanto
HEARING
Continued from Page 1A
Harrison said Lujan spent the night of
the 15th at her Washtenaw Avenue apart-
ment, and that two of Lujan's friends
woke them up Saturday momingby yell-
ing toward the window. Harrison said
Lujan's friends, Michelle and Natasha,
held a piece of aluminum foil in their
hands as they called to the window.
"Michelle said: 'Wegotit! Wegotit!
We did it! We did it! We got the hair,"'
Harrison recalled in testimony. "Then
Cris said: 'Good, good. Bring it here."
Harrison said she then saw that the
aluminum foil was wrapped around a
large swath of hair, which she de-
scribed as about 6 inches long and 11/
2 inches in diameter. She said that
Lujan "was excited" when she saw the
hair. Lujan then allegedly put a piece
of the hair on her keychain.
Daniel Rice's house
On Saturday, Sept. 16, Harrison and
Lujan went to Detroit to party at a few
different clubs, Harrison testified.
Harrison drove Lujan's light blue
Daihatsu on the return trip, and said
Lujan directed her to a house on
Hickman Road in Superior Township.
"She said she wanted to stop by a
friend's," Harrison said. "She said he
hadgunsandmoney.She said shewanted
to do a (breaking and entering)."
Harrison said they stopped in front
of Rice's home, and said Lujan wanted
to go up to the door, knock, and then
go in and steal from Rice.
"I told her no, that I don't do stuff
like that," Harrison said. "Then we left
and went back to my apartment."
Lujan again spent the night with
Harrison. The next afternoon, Sunday,
Sept.17, Lujan's friend Michelle showed
up at the Washtenaw apartment.
"Michelle asked for her money,"
Harrison said, referring to the assault
on Banks. "Crystal said she needed
hore" done to Banks.
Dale Lipke
That day, Lipke first stepped into
the scenario, according to testimony.
Harrison said Lujan and Lipke came to
her apartment and just hung around
for most of the day. At 10 p.m. on
Sunday, Harrison said Lujan and Lipke
left together in Luj an's blue Daihatsu.
This is when,prosecutors allege, Lujan
and Lipke entered Rice's home, wrapped
him in tape, and beat in his head with a
sledgehammer and a flashlight.
Antonio Jacobs, afriend ofboth Lujan
and Lipke, painted a picture that put
more ofthe blame on Lujan. Jacobs is an
ex-boyfriend of Lipke, and has known
Lipke for more than four years. He said
he has known Lujan for about one year.
"After he was arrested and in jail,
Dale called me on the phone," said
Jacobs, who taped his conversations
with Lipke at the request of the Depart-
ment of Public Safety. "Dale told me
SARA STILLMAN/Daily
LSA sophomore Crystal Lujan and her attorney consult at her hearing yesterday.
that (on the night they were in Rice's
home) he was being yelled at by Crystal to
hit (Rice) with a flashlight after she had
hit Rice with a sledgehammer. He said he
has never heard anyone shriek like that.
"He said he tried to hit the man but the
flashlight slipped out of his hand and
Crystal yelled at him again," Jacobs said.
She then picked up the flashlight and hit
the man, and "he said the sound was
going 'squish.' That was when she was
hitting the man in the head."
At this point of the hearing, Lipke
broke into silent tears, holding his head
in his hands and staring at the floor.
Lujan then looked over at Lipke and
whispered: "Why is he saying this?"
The murder of Daniel Rice
William Pont, Rice's friend and former
co-worker at the Environmental Research
Institute of Michigan, testified that he last
saw Rice alive at 11 p.m. Saturday, Sept.
16, when the two were playing Dungeons
and Dragons. Pont said he tried to e-mail
Rice on Monday, Sept. 18 and again the
next day. After receiving no response,
Pont said he tried to call Rice's home and
was met with a constant busy signal.
Rodney Regell, who lived with
Harrison, testified that he saw Lujan and
Lipke leave the apartment at about 10:30
p.m. Sunday night. He also said he saw
the pair sleeping in the blue Daihatsu
outside the apartment early Monday
morning. Regell said he told them to go
upstairs into the apartment to sleep, and
that he escorted them up.
Harrison said she saw Lipke and Lujan
on Monday. She said Lipke was wearing
the same clothes he had been wearing the
night before, but said the pullover he had
been wearing was in a plastic bag.
"Cris had his (pullover) in a plastic
bag," Harrison said. "His gray jeans were
soiled. There were burgundy stains on
them, like Kool-Aid."
Accordingto Harrison, Lipkechanged
out of his pants and took them with him.
She also said Lujan took the plastic bag
containing Lipke's shirt. Harrison said
she never saw Lujan again after 2 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 18.
Harrison said the reason Lujan wanted
to' g6 into Rice's house was to steal
money and guns, and to retrieve a com-
puter disk Lujan said contained impor-
tant information about her.
Two fires
Ronald Langman, Rice's next-door
neighbor in Superior Township, testi-
fied that he was sitting in his home on
Wednesday, Sept. 20 when he saw a
small, light blue car drive into Rice's
driveway at about 4:30 p.m. He later
correctly identified Lujan's car as the
one he saw that day.
After the car left, the lights in
Langman's house began to flicker.
Langman said he went outside to ask
his neighbors if they were having the
same problem, and noticed smoke and
a strange noise coming from Rice's
house. He then spotted a tire and called
the fire department.
Jacobs said he saw Lipke and Lujan on
Thursday, Sept. 21, and noticed that
Lipke's eyebrows and arm hair were
singed. He said Lipke told him a cherry
bomb had been thrown into his room.
That night, Jacobs said he talked to
Lipke many times and said Lipke "was
scared but would not explain to me why."
Jacobs said the three of them went to
a gas station on the corner of Carpenter
and Packard roads to fill up with gas.
He said Lujan bought two bottles of
Mountain Dew and filled them with
gas, telling him that the gas was for her
other car. He said he saw the filled
bottles in the back seat of the car, but
never saw them again.
The trio then went to Vera Baits II,
where Erika Banks had previously lived
in Room 2101. Jacobs said he and Lipke
were talking outside the building while
Lujan left them. He said he later went to
look for Lujan and found her hiding in
a closet area on a hallway. Jacobs said
the fire happened at that point, but he
did not see where it originated.
"When you hear something like a
train coming after you, you just run,
you don't look," Jacobs said.
He said he ran into Lipke as he exited
the building, spotting Lipke where they
had been talking earlier. He said Lipke
was smoking a cigarette.
Music School senior Christopher
Curtis, who lives in Baits II across the
hall from Banks' former room, said he
was woken up by a strange sound.
"It was like air rushing out a chimney,"
Curtis tesitfied. "1guess it was the fire....
I went over to the door, saw an orange
glow, touched the door and it was hot."
He said he then woke up his suite-mate
and exited the room into the hallway.
Curtis said he could not see more than 10
feet away due to smoke, and saw knee-
high flames covering the rug coming
from Banks' room. Curtis said he did not
see any debris or anyone near the flames.
A gun and crossbow
The next day, Lujan allegedly tricked
her way into a former coworker's home
and stole a 9mm semi-automaticmachine
pistol. She allegedly told Charles Carter's
father that she had left something in the
home and is accused of stealing the
weapon from Carter's bookshelf.
Late on Friday, Sept. 22, Ditre Heren,
a detective in the Washtenaw County
Sheriff's Department, located Lujan
driving on State Street. He said she had
been listed as a suspect in Rice's mur-
der and was driving with a suspended
license. He made contact with her and
Lipke, who was riding in the passenger
seat, as they were pulling into a parking
spot on Liberty Street.
A subsequent search of the vehicle by
Sheriff's Detective Kelly Williams
turned up an M-11 sub-machine gun in
the trunk compartment and a crossbow
located underneath the passenger seat.
Williams said the crossbow had an ar-
row initschamberandsaiditwascocked.
Harrison said she saw the crossbow in
Lujan's car on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
Lipke was arrested in connection with
the Baits fire and Lujan was arrested for
carrying a concealed weapon. The two
were arraigned separately on Monday,
Sept. 25 and have remained in custody
at Washtenaw County Jail.
The case continues
Defense attorneys for both defendants
cross-examined each witness, bringing
the issue of credibility to surface for
many of the witnesses. Witnesses' use of
alcohol and drugs was a prevalent theme
for Lujan's lawyer, John Toomey.
Toomey said the preliminary hearing
was just that, , and that the suspects are
not on trial at this point.
"This is just an opportunity for the
prosecution to put up its witnesses and
show that there may be reason to go forth
with a trial," Toomey said after the hear-
ing. "The hearing will decide what
charges, if any, will come from this."
Toomey said it is unlikely that the
defense attorneys will bring witnesses
in today's hearing.
Randall Roberts, Lipke's attorney, said
the minimal mention ofhis client's name
in yesterday's hearing was a good sign.
"I think today went well for several
reasons," Roberts said. "There was little
mention of Dale throughout the hear-
ing, and where he was mentioned, it
was that he was afraid and pulled into
this whole situation. He was duped."
Yesterday's testimony was for the
purpose ofbinding charges over for trial.
Prosecutors Joseph Burke, Steven
Hiller and Laurie Coates will call addi-
tional witnesses today in Courtroom
No.2 of the Washtenaw County Court-
house. The hearing is scheduled to con-
tinue at 9:15 a m.
The Washington Post
HONG KONG - Cuban President
Fidel Castro once vowed that he would
never repeat the mistake made by So-
viet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in
thinking he could crack open the door
of the communist system just a little
bit without its flinging wide open on
him.
Yet yesterday Castro, in search of a
way of breathing life into the ailing Cu-
ban economy, completed a 10-day tourof
China, the communist country that pio-
neered the "open door" approach.
His trip was capped by a visit to the
southern Chinese boom town ofShenzhen
that has been at the forefront of China's
market-oriented economic reforms.
Once aquiet fishing village, Shenzhen
has been transformed into a bustling
metropolis of export industries and 3
million people including textile and toy
factory workers, migrants, construction
workers, real estate speculators and
prostitutes.
On Wednesday, Chinese national
television showed President Jiang
Zemin giving Castro a bear hug and
then a tour of China Bicycle Corp. and
the Konka Group, an electronics joint
venture with foreign firms that manu-
factures television sets,stereos and tele-
communications equipment.
Castro was quoted in the govern-
ment-published Shenzhen Special
Zone Daily as saying that he was
"stunned by Shenzhen's achieve-
Castro completes
1A0-day tour of China
I&
ments" and that "Shenzhen has cre
ated a miracle unmatched in any other
place in the world."
It's doubtful, however, whether the
miracle of China's economy has pro-.
duced a political conversion ofCastro.
to the virtue of a more open system
Indeed, one aspect of the Chines,
miracle Castro is probably drawn to
is the ability of Chinese leaders to
keep their "open door" only part way
open.
While letting investment, advisers
and products flow into China, Chinese
leaders have tried to slam the door on
democracy and freedom. In doing so,
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who
took over in 1978 and still lingers be
hind the scenes, has succeeded where
Gorbachev failed: He has hung onto
power.
But if Castro wanted to see how dif-
ficult it is to control China in the reform
era, he didn't have to look any farther
than Shenzhen.
Three days before Castro's arrival,
four people were killed and scores
injured in a clash between migrant'
workers and villagers just outside the
city.
Angered when a motorcycle rider ran
over a freshly paved piece of road,
laborers beat a village guard to death'
and ransacked the Communist Party
office in the village of Longgang, Hong'
Kong newspapers reported. Police
opened fire.
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Ronald McDonald
Jacob Kerwell, 2, a patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is there when
McDonald's restaurant announces the hospital held a $1 million winning ticket.
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MOSCOW (AP) - Free booze and
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