David Allen Lucas

David Allen Lucas (born 1956) is an American serial killer who committed between three and six murders in San Diego County, California from 1979 to 1984. Due to the fact that all the victims had their throats slashed, the case was dubbed The Throat-Slash Murders.

After one of the most prolonged trials in the city's history, Lucas was found guilty of three of the murders and sentenced to death, and remains on death row.

Early life Not much is known about the early life of Lucas. Born in 1956 on an American military installation in the Philippines, he was one of three children born to naval officer Clarence Lucas and his wife Patricia Katzenmeier, who moved back to the United States when David was still young. From an early age, David began to experience health problems, being diagnosed with bronchial asthma and nocturnal enuresis. His childhood was fraught by the destructive behavior of his father, who physically and sexually abused his children and spouse. According to the Lucas children's recollections, Clarence would fly into fits of rage and destroy furniture, have frequent arguments with their mother and would frequently beat them with a belt, telephone cable or his bare hands.

After his release, Lucas married a woman named Shannon and moved to Spring Valley, where he opened his own carpet cleaning business with the help of his friend, Frank William Clark. At approximately the same time, Michael called her workplace, but also received no response. At 12:30 AM, a courier named Louis Hoeniger showed up at the Jacobs' home to deliver a dinette set that they had ordered the previous day. Without waiting for them to answer, he left the package on the porch and left. That evening, Santiago left a restaurant sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 PM and walked to her vehicle in the parking lot in order to return to her brother's apartment. At that time, Lucas, whom Santiago would later positively identify as her attacker, approached her from behind, put a knife to her throat and began threatening to kill her. Lucas took her to his dark maroon colored sports car and then drove to his house, where he dragged her to the bedroom, tied her hands behind her back and placed her on the bed. She was naked below her waist, had her throat cut, and a silver lanyard chain used to tether dogs was found around her neck. The top of her clothes had been cut open, exposing her upper torso. In the meantime, Lucas was sued by Clark, who attempted to dissolve the partnership on claims that he was unable to run the business due to his arrest. Massingale was arrested in March 1984, after which he confessed to killing the Jacobses and spent 10 months in the San Diego County Jail. After establishing Lucas' involvement in the murders, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Massingale and was released from custody in January 1985, after which he sued the District Attorney's Office for $3,000,000 in financial compensation. In his claim, Massingale - who was illiterate, did not know how to write and studied only until the fourth grade - said that Denny Pace, an investigator with the Kentucky State Police, had threatened him with the death penalty if he did not confess.

Trial Because of the large number of murders and the lengthy investigation, by the end of 1985, the criminal cases amounted to several dozen volumes for Lucas and his attorneys to review, so that preliminary hearings did not begin until January 1986. In his testimony, Pace said that had known Massingale's family for years and that he knew he often did drugs and prostituted himself to other men for money. According to him, Massingale admitted that he had met a woman named Suzanne at a bar and that they left together in a taxi, but was unable what happened clearly because he was high on LSD. Due to insufficient evidence, he was acquitted of the murder of Gayle Garcia, and was similarly acquitted for the murders of Rhonda Strang and Amber Fisher, as those charged resulted in a hung jury. He showed no emotion during sentencing, but his mother said that she loved him, burst into tears, and ran out of the courtroom and down the hallway. The verdict was welcomed by the deceased victims' family members and Jodie Robertson, who felt that the brutality of Lucas' crimes warranted the death penalty. A new trial date was set for the Strang-Fisher murders, but the charges were later dropped on the grounds that he was already sentenced to death.

Appeals Since his conviction, Lucas has repeatedly attempted to overturn his convictions, citing errors in the trial and penalty phases. His appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of California in 2014, which concluded that any possible errors were not prejudicial, and he was thus not entitled to a retrial.

As of September 2023, Lucas remains on California's death row.