Daughter of Murder Victim Found in Marin Testifies in Trial

Prosecutors Rosemary Slote and Dori Ahana are presenting evidence they claim links Naso to the murder of Sharieea Patton, 56, of San Francisco, whose body was found along a San Francisco Bay shoreline in Tiburon on Jan. 14, 1981.

The bodies of other women linked to Naso were found between 1977 and 1994 in Marin, Contra Costa and Yuba counties.

Naso was not charged with her murder, but the prosecution is hoping that the testimony will help convince the jury to recommend the death penalty.

Prosecutors are trying to establish that Patton lived in an apartment at 839 Leavenworth St. in San Francisco at the time of her death.

Charles Gaetani, the owner of the apartment building in 1980, testified Tuesday morning that Naso lived and worked as a resident apartment manager at the complex at the time Patton was killed.

Evidence that Patton lived there includes her application for employment at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco and a receipt from a cleaner in the area, both of which list her as living at that address on
Leavenworth Street.

Patton's daughter, Rusel Heckert, 63, testified today about a gray rabbit-fur coat her mother owned.

The prosecution intends to introduce into evidence a photo of a half-naked woman wearing a similar coat that was found in Naso's home.

Heckert testified she believes that coat was her mother's.

"I'm positive that was my mom's fur coat," she told Ahana.

She said she and her mother had bought matching Joseph Magnin fur coats for $100 each, and that she had given hers away to a thrift store after her mother died.

Naso questioned how she could know that the coat in the photo was her mother's since the photo didn't show the label.

Heckert did not look at Naso once this morning when she answered his questions about her mother. He asked about Patton's habits and social life.

Heckert testified that her mother was a hard worker and was always busy, and didn't go to bars or socialize much.

"She had no interest in men," Heckert said.

Patton had worked for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office before moving up to Kings Beach in the Tahoe area, where she lived with Heckert.

After Heckert got married and moved out, Patton moved out in late 1980, Heckert testified.

She ended up in San Francisco, and applied for a job at St. Francis Hospital on Jan. 6, 1981, prosecutors said.

After her body turned up in the Bay a little more than a week later, Heckert's husband got a call from a family friend who had seen the story on the news and recognized Patton, Heckert testified.

Heckert traveled to Marin County the next day to identify her mother's body, she said.

The morning session ended with a testy exchange between Naso and Judge Andrew Sweet after the jury left for a lunch break.