Convicted Killer Charged In Laguna Beach Cold Case Murder

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —A 60-year-old convicted killer was charged -- for a second time -- in a brutal 1978 robbery and slaying case, according to court records.

Walter Lawrence Dalie has been charged with the brutal murder of Laguna Beach resident Brent Stapleton Tobey, the same charge that was previously dismissed by prosecutors in August 2015.

At that time, the Orange County Crime Lab was unable to conduct a detailed forensic analysis of evidence from the scene of the crime and the case against Dalie was dismissed.

In recent months, the Orange County Crime Lab has been at the forefront of several high profile DNA cases.

Tobey, 55 at the time of his death, was stabbed 17 times in the back, head, and chest on Nov. 20, 1978, Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said.

Prosecutors dismissed the original case, in 2011, in part because two critical witnesses had died since a preliminary hearing in the Tobey killing, Murphy said. Dalie was charged the special circumstance murder, where he committed the murder during a robbery and a sentence-enhancing allegation of use of a deadly weapon.

Tobey was last seen alive about 12:30 p.m. that day, according to Laguna Beach police Capt. Jason Kravetz.

Tobey and a friend, who lived in a rental unit behind Tobey's home, had plans to dine together to celebrate the conviction that day of Laguna Beach resident James Scramlin for the 1977 murder of their friend Albert Willard, Kravetz said.

The two had found Willard's body in his home in the city's Temple Hills neighborhood, the captain said.

When Tobey failed to show up for dinner, his friend went to his home at 1320 Carmelita St. about 7 p.m. and found him on the floor of his bedroom in a pool of blood.

Dalie -- then 19 and living in Newport Beach -- was not a suspect at the time.

Investigators believe Dalie stole a ring from Tobey before or after allegedly killing him, Murphy said.

Laguna Beach police revived the investigation in 2002 when evidence was sent to the Orange County Crime Lab for a DNA match.

There were no matches until mid-2010, when Connecticut officials loaded some samples in its database, including Dalie's, Kravetz said.

Dalie was then serving time in Connecticut for bludgeoning his girlfriend to death with a hammer, Kravetz said. She was closing up her family's restaurant for the night when he went to steal the day's cash receipts, Kravetz said.

Dalie grew up in Dana Point and graduated from Dana Hills High School. During the 1970s and early 1980s, he was a parolee who lived in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.

Dalie was extradited to Orange County from a Connecticut prison, where he was serving a 50-year sentence in the 1985 murder of his girlfriend. According to the Connecticut Department of Correction records, Dalie's scheduled release date was July of this year.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.