LAGUNA NIGUEL : Man to Stand Trial in Death of Father

A 25-year-old Encino bank employee was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on suspicion of murder in the 1990 shooting death of his father at his Rancho Santa Margarita condominium.

After a preliminary hearing, Judge Jerome E. Stevenson in Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel set a March 16 trial date in Superior Court for Sean Hirsch, who has pleaded not guilty and is free on $250,000 bail. Hirsch is also known by the name Sean C. McNamara.

Hirsch is accused of shooting his father, John Francis McNamara, with a borrowed rifle as he slept in his bed at 6 a.m. on Oct. 7, 1990. McNamara, 46, a divorced medical supplies salesman, was shot once in the abdomen but managed to get to a phone and call 911.

When paramedics arrived, McNamara was found lying on the floor of his bedroom and died about 1 1/2 hours later at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

It was not until nearly two years later, on Sept. 23, 1992, that investigators from the Sheriff’s Department arrested Hirsch, a son of McNamara’s from his first marriage. Hirsch’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Marri Derby, said Tuesday that the arrest took so long because investigators had so little evidence to connect her client to the shooting.

She also claimed that Hirsch, who had lived with his father in El Toro previously, was helping him financially at the time of the shooting. McNamara had just gone through a bitter divorce with his second wife, Derby said.

“It’s a really interesting case because it’s so weak,” Derby said.

Derby said a key piece of evidence in the trial would be the weapon, a Marlin 30-30 hunting rifle that Hirsch is accused of taking from the closet of some friends in Ventura.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard M. King would say little after Hirsch was ordered to stand trial, except to maintain that evidence will come out to prove the prosecution’s case. He said the arrest took so long because of the continuing investigation.