Witness Deaths Complicate Trial in Murder of Laguna Beach Civic Leader

A cold case Laguna Beach murder trial has hit some roadblocks with the deaths of two key witnesses.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office may have to drop the charges against Walter Lawrence Dalie, a 56-year-old convicted murderer accused of stabbing to death a prominent Laguna Beach civic leader. However, the charges will be refiled, and, in the meantime, Dalie does not pose a threat to the community because he is currently serving a 50-year sentence for the 1985 Connecticut murder of his girlfriend, said Roxi Fyad, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

“He will remain in custody,” Fyad said.

Dalie isn’t eligible for parole in the Connecticut murder until 2019, she added.

A hearing on Tuesday will determine if prosecutors will continue with the current case or temporarily drop the charges. In addition to the two elderly witnesses who passed away, a third witness is currently unable to travel to Orange County to testify due to medical issues. If the defense objects to further delaying the trial, it may become necessary to drop the charges and refile at a later date.

Dalie was extradited in 2011 to faces charges in Orange County for the 1978 cold case stabbing-murder of a Laguna Beach architect Brent Stapleton Tobey, 55. He is being held without bail.

Dalie was linked to Tobey’s stabbing through DNA evidence, Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz previously told Patch.

Tobey, who was killed Nov. 20, 1978, was last seen alive about 12:30 p.m. that day. He and a friend had made plans to have dinner to celebrate the conviction that day of Laguna Beach resident James Scramlin for the 1977 murder of their friend Albert Willard in his home in the city’s Temple Hills neighborhood, Kravetz said, noting that Tobey and his friend had found the victim’s body. When Tobey did not 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. He had been stabbed 17 times in the head and back with a knife.

“We suspect the victim and the suspect met up sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.,’’ Kravetz told Patch in 2011. Dalie told investigators he knew Tobey, but “I can’t say how well,’’ Kravetz said.

In 1978, police arrested a suspect who had been staying with Tobey, but he was quickly ruled out as a suspect, Kravetz said. The investigation was revived in 2002, when Laguna Beach Detective Paul Litchenberg submitted several items from the crime scene to the Orange County crime lab to seek a DNA match, Kravetz said.

There were no matches, though, until mid-2010, when Connecticut officials loaded some samples into its database, including Dalie’s, Kravetz said. Dalie bludgeoned his girlfriend to death with a hammer, Kravetz said. She was closing up her family’s restaurant for the night when Dalie decided to steal the day’s receipts, the lieutenant said.

“He wanted to take all the receipts for the night, but this was her family business,’’ and she resisted, Kravetz said. “He’s large, and he’s been in prison for 26 years, so he’s very intimidating,’’ Kravetz said of Dalie. “When we were watching him in prison, he looked like someone who commanded respect from all the other prisoners.’’

Sgt. Bob Rahaeuser and Kravetz interviewed Dalie three times in prison in Connecticut last year.

“I can’t say whether he confessed, but we did receive a lot of information from that, correlated with the evidence we already had,’’ 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. He was 19 years old and living in Newport Beach when Tobey was killed, Kravetz said.

Rich Kane contributed to this report.