Alleged Serial Killer Shows Nude Photos to Jury

By Jessica Mullins

National print and TV news outlets filled Marin County Superior Court Monday morning to hear the opening statements for the trial of alleged serial killer Joseph Naso, who is representing himself in court.

Monday morning, a prosecutor outlined the evidence she says will link the 79-year-old to the strangulation murders of four prostitutes in Northern California between 1977 and 1994.

In the afternoon, Naso told the jury he is innocent, arguing there is no evidence linking him to the four homicides, and showed a variety of his photography, including multiple snapshots of naked or half-naked women, to the jury.

Naso, of Reno, is charged with murdering Roxene Roggasch, 18, of Oakland, whose body was found in Marin County on Jan. 11, 1977, and Carmen Colon, 22, an East Bay resident who was found dead in Contra Costa County on Aug. 15, 1978.

He is also charged with two Yuba County murders for the deaths of Pamela Parsons, 38, and Tracey Tafoya, 31. Parsons' body was found on Sept. 19, 1993, and Tafoya's body was found on Aug. 14, 1994.

Marin County Deputy District Attorney Rosemary Slote told jurors this morning that Naso's DNA was detected on the pantyhose Roggasch was wearing when she was found on the side of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard on the eastern slope of White's Hill in Fairfax. The DNA of Naso's wife Judy was found on another pair of pantyhose that was wrapped around Roggasch's neck, she said.

The prosecution is alleging that Naso met the women while he was working as a self-employed photographer.

Investigators found news stories about Tafoya's death in Naso’s safety deposit box, along with photos Naso had taken of Tafoya in stockings and pantyhose, according to Slote.

Naso Says There’s No Evidence Linking Him to the Murders

Naso, dressed in a black suit with a royal blue tie, told the jury there is no evidence that proves he’s familiar with Marin County and no evidence he’s ever been in Marin County or Contra Coast County.

He said he picked up Parsons when she was hitchhiking and she modeled for him. “She was a known prostitute. She offered sex but I said I wasn’t interested in sex,” he said. “I’m sorry about her demise, but I didn’t do it.”

Naso photographed nude and partially nude women in heels, lingerie and garters in poses that made them appear dead, incapacitated or unconscious, according to evidence presented at Naso's preliminary hearing.

Naso has said all of the prosecution's evidence at that hearing was circumstantial.

Photos Naso showed during his opening statements included portraits of him at a variety of ages and photos he took of weddings, families with small children and female models. Photos included a church group, a bottomless model posing in San Francisco’s Marina District, geese in a park, a naked model outside the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, University of California sorority girls, a model from Marin wearing lingerie, a couple cutting the cake at their wedding, a topless woman wearing only cutoff jeans and red shoes, as well as multiple photos of women in seductive poses wearing nothing but thigh-high pantyhose and high heels.

“I did some pretty erotic and sexual pictures,” Naso said. “I didn’t care for porno, but sexy pictures I thought were OK.”

He said the photos demonstrated the variety of professional photography he has done. 

Also during his opening statements, Naso said he has a loose terminology in his writing and day-to-day language and when he referred to “raping” someone it didn’t have a literal meaning. “That’s the way I talk. It means making out and having great sex. It’s loose talk I use,” he said. “If I say I ‘picked up a nice broad and raped her’ it has nothing to do with forensical rape.”

He also dismissed some of the people who will testify during the trial, which is expected to last until mid-November.

“There will be ‘so-called experts’ testifying,” he told the jury. “They are paid experts.”

He also said preliminary hearing testimony and prosecutor statements were “opinions,” “speculations,” “theories” but not “evidence.”

An Alleged 'Serial Murderer and Serial Rapist' 

Inside Naso's safety deposit box at a bank in Reno, investigators also found news articles about Parsons' death, Slote said. Attached to the news articles were laminated photos of Parsons. 

At the time Colon and Roggasch disappeared, Naso lived in Oakland about 2 miles from where they both worked at prostitutes, Slote said.

Naso lived in the Marysville area in Yuba County around the time Parsons and Tafoya were killed, she said.

Additionally, the box contained a list that included the phrases "Girl from Port Costa," "Girl from Logunitas," "Girl from Linda (Yuba County)," and "Girl from MRV (cemetery)," with MRV supposedly meaning Marysville, according to Slote. 

Slote said the list refers to the four murder victims. She showed jurors photographs of the victims' bodies, all of which were found along rural roads.

"At the end of this case, it will be sufficient evidence that the defendant is a serial murderer and serial rapist," Slote said.

Naso Could be Eligble for the Death Penalty

In addition to the murder charges, Naso faces a special-circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders that would make him eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted.

Prosecutors have said they intend to seek capital punishment.

While he was speaking to the jury, Naso would at times digress, such as an instance when he told a story to the jury he said “wasn’t related to the case.” The story, from decades ago, was about a female driving a car with two young children who picked Naso up on the East Coast at 1 a.m. in the morning when he was hitchhiking and drove him to Seattle in two days and two nights. “I just wanted to tell you that story to show that people do hitchhike,” he said.

Before he gave his opening statements, he expressed displeasure to Judge Andrew Sweet with the courtroom projector he would use to show his photography. “The glare is very distracting,” he said. “It doesn’t make it look like a photograph.” 

Attorney Pedro Oliveros of the Marin County Public Defender's Office will serve as Naso's advisory counsel during the trial. He said his role is helping Naso with questions regarding the law and trial procedure.

There are six men and six women on the jury panel and nine alternate jurors. 

–Bay City News contributed to this report. Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. – Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.