Attorneys duked it out Monday during opening statements in a cold case murder trial that happened to fall on what would have been the victim’s 83rd birthday.
Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg told a San Diego jury that Randall Oyler is linked to the killing of Margaret Orozco Jackson by DNA evidence and incriminating statements he made after his arrest. Jackson was severely beaten and strangled, and a rope was wrapped twice around her neck, the prosecutor said.
Defense attorney Kara Oien, however, contends that the case arose from an inadequate police investigation and is reliant on flimsy evidence.
Oyler, 65, is charged with killing Jackson, whose body was discovered on a hillside off Scripps Ranch Boulevard on July 11, 1990.
The defendant, who was 29 years old when Jackson’s body was discovered, was not identified as a suspect until testing conducted decades later. The break in the cold case came when the findings linked him to DNA found beneath the victim’s fingernails and on other areas of her body, Lindberg said.
Break in cold case
Oyler was already in custody for an alleged probation violation when he was arrested in 2023 on suspicion of murdering Jackson.
Lindberg said that while in custody, Oyler was placed in a cell with an undercover jail operative posing as an inmate.
In video clips played in court, the two men can be heard discussing why Oyler was arrested.
At one point, Oyler says, “She scratched me.”
In another clip, the operative asks Oyler if he “just left her there” and Oyler responds that he “threw her down a hill.”
But Oien said none of the statements her client made amounted to confessions or admissions to murdering Jackson. She said Oyler’s statements were “vague remarks” made in response to the operative’s prodding questions about his case.
The attorney also said the DNA evidence only told part of the story, as its presence alone couldn’t show that Oyler had any involvement in Jackson’s death.
“The science can’t tell you how the DNA got there, when the DNA got there, why the DNA’s there. The DNA cannot prove violence and the DNA cannot prove murder,” Oien said.
The defense attorney said that until the DNA testing was conducted decades later, Oyler was not on the radar of investigators, who she said overlooked critical leads and failed to collect or test a number of items that could have led to answers back in 1990.
Oien said, “You will not hear any reliable evidence that Mr. Oyler caused this death.”
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