LOS GATOS
Attorney announces strategy for
client accused in slaying
The attorney for architect Maurice Nasmeh, accused in
the slaying of 42-year-old Jeanine Harms of Los Gatos, will ask a
Santa Clara County Superior Court judge Friday to suppress evidence
found in Nasmeh's vehicle after the woman disappeared.
Attorney Daniel Jensen said his motion will ask Judge
Randolf Rice to set aside the evidence because police officers went
beyond the scope of their search warrant and seized Nasmeh's car, a
Jeep Grand Cherokee.
``They named several things they were looking for, then
they seized the vehicle,'' Jensen said. ``They never asked
permission to take the Jeep.''
The vehicle was impounded for several days, Jensen said.
Police got the warrant and searched the vehicle in early August
2001, within days of Harms' disappearance. She was last seen on the
night of July 27, 2001, after a date with Nasmeh, whom she had met
for the first time earlier that evening at a bar.
After months of intensive crime lab work, the evidence
from the vehicle yielded fibers that led to Nasmeh's arrest in
December 2004. Tiny fibers from a rug project that Harms had worked
on in her home were found in the cargo area of the Jeep and on a
carpet that authorities believe was used in disposing of her
body.
Harms' body has never been found. Nasmeh, 41, has
pleaded not guilty.
-- Connie Skipitares