Earl Stefanson - "Silence of the Lambs" Pervert

"was beaten from her head to her toes, from her front to her back, from one side of her body to the other"

An Oakland roofer is a predatory sadist who tortured and fatally beat his girlfriend in a home that reminded one police investigator of "The Silence of the Lambs" and tormented two other women he dated, a prosecutor told jurors today.

Earl Stefanson, 43, preyed on three "lost souls" who were hooked on methamphetamine, prosecutor Casey Bates said in his closing argument in Alameda County Superior Court, where Stefanson is accused of murder, torture and false imprisonment.

Stefanson is accused of killing Leslie Lamb, 36, of San Leandro at his home on Coolidge Avenue in Oakland's Dimond district in August 2006. Stefanson dressed Lamb in fresh clothes after beating and kicking her unconscious and breaking seven of her ribs, then delivered her to Highland Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Bates said.

Dressing Lamb in unbloodied clothes, the prosecutor said, amounted to "B.S."

"This is a fabrication," Bates said. "This is manufacturing evidence. This is an effort to fool people. This is deliberate. This is willful. This is murder."

Lamb "was beaten from her head to her toes, from her front to her back, from one side of her body to the other," Bates said, showing jurors autopsy photos after giving Lamb's family a chance to leave the Oakland courtroom.

"A person can be judged by their actions," the prosecutor added. "Their actions tell us who they are. Mr. Stefanson is a dark soul."

Stefanson's attorney, Ted Berry, countered in his closing argument today that prosecutors had proved nothing beyond a reasonable doubt except for a charge that his client illegally possessed a firearm.

Berry said some people pay money to be beaten and all but suggested that the women Stefanson allegedly abused could have been willing participants.

"If that's true, then even if you find that the acts which are alleged to have been done were done by Mr. Stefanson, it absolves him from the responsibility because they agreed," Berry said.

Stefanson, the son of an ex-president of the Hells Angels' Oakland chapter, took the stand during his trial and denied assaulting the women or killing Lamb.

He said Lamb appeared to be drugged and slurring her words when the two had sex at his home. The defense has suggested that Lamb was suicidal or died of a methamphetamine overdose.

Bates said today that Stefanson gave Lamb two black eyes in the months before she died and assaulted two previous girlfriends, Zeba Wahed and Kristen Nielsen, from 2004 to 2006.

Stefanson locked Wahed in a U-Haul trailer at his home for at least 12 hours, Wahed testified. She also said Stefanson had forced her into a garage at his previous home on Stella Street in Oakland, where he prevented her from taking antibiotics and pain medication she had been prescribed after undergoing surgery.

According to the prosecutor, blood belonging to Wahed and Lamb was found in Stefanson's home, and his DNA was found in Lamb's mouth. Stefanson sanded the wood floor where Lamb's blood was found, Bates said.

Police have said that when they searched Stefanson's home, they found a basement chamber that was reminiscent of "The Silence of the Lambs," the 1991 movie in which a psychopathic serial killer imprisons and skins his victims. Stefanson's home was boarded up and covered with soundproofing material, authorities said.

Stefanson testified that the house had been in that condition because he was remodeling it.