Case # 13CF0461
Date: September 4, 2015
MAN LINKED THROUGH DNA SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR 1982 COLD CASE MURDER OF FRIEND TO HIDE PREVIOUS MURDER
FULLERTON, Calif. – A man linked through DNA has been sentenced to seven years to life in state prison today for the 1982 murder of his friend after fearing that the victim had discovered a previous murder committed by the defendant, per the sentencing laws in existence in 1982. David Richard Campbell, 70, pleaded guilty to one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement the personal use of a firearm. Campbell is currently in custody in Orange County Jail.
Prior to January 1982, Campbell murdered his friend, William Raber.
On Jan. 2, 1982, Campbell met with his 26-year-old friend, Frank “Bart” Marshall, who mentioned that Raber had not been seen in a while. Campbell felt that Marshall was suspicious about Raber’s murder and decided to murder Marshall by shooting him in the head. He dismembered the victim’s body and discarded the remains in the mountains near Big Bear. The case was investigated as a missing person case, but went cold.
After the murder of Marshall, Campbell murdered John Fischer in Riverside County.
In 1985, hikers near Big Bear discovered fragments of a skull and reported it to authorities, but the remains were unidentified for over 27 years. The skull was identified in 2013 through DNA investigation and determined as belonging to Marshall.
In 1984, Campbell was convicted and received a sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole in Riverside County for the murders of Raber and Fischer.
The Fullerton Police Department began re-investigating this case and linked Campbell to the murder of Marshall using DNA technology that was not available at the time of the crime.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.