Son on Trial in Slayings of 3 in Family : Courts: Prosecution says evidence against Edward Charles III is overwhelming. Defense cites lack of motive.

SANTA ANA —  A Fullerton mechanic accused of killing his parents and brother and setting them afire in a car last year later tried to cover his deed through lies and botched jailhouse schemes, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent opened the prosecution’s against murder defendant Edward Charles III by scrawling a formula on butcher paper: “3 very bad killings + cover-up = 3 awful murders + 1 very guilty defendant.”

But a defense lawyer said his client had no reason to commit murder--an act he said friends and relatives of Charles would find completely out of character.

“There’s no apparent motive for it. There’s no evidence of anything . . . not money, not greed, not anything, that says Mr. Charles did this,” Deputy Public Defender Mark Davis said during opening statements in Orange County Superior Court.

Charles, who was 21 at the time, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of murdering his father, Edward Charles Jr., 55, a Hughes Aircraft engineer; his mother, Dolores, 47, a self-employed typist; and brother, Danny, 19, a promising opera singer and performer in his second year at USC.

The bodies of all three were found in the family Honda, which was torched in a La Mirada school parking lot on Nov. 7, 1994.

Danny Charles, stuffed in the trunk, suffered stab wounds and was fatally bludgeoned, Brent said. The nude bodies of his parents were in the back seat; Edward Charles had been bludgeoned and Dolores Charles suffered injuries to her neck, possibly from strangulation, he said. Both were severely burned, he said.

Edward Charles III was arrested at the family’s home in the upscale Sunny Hills neighborhood two days later.

Brent conceded the motive remained a mystery. But he argued that the evidence--including a blood-specked wrench matching the defendant’s tools and notes allegedly written by Charles as part of a bungled cover-up plot--provided overwhelming proof.

The prosecutor said the three victims were slain as Charles’ grandfather slept in another room, just a few hours after the family ate dinner at the Terraza Place home.

“Why did Mr. Charles . . . choose to kill that night? I don’t know. I’m just going to tell you up front, I don’t know,” Brent told jurors.

Brent said Charles left a trail of clues.

A bloodied wrench bearing Charles’ custom tool markings was found days later with other blood-soaked items by a scavenger picking through a trash bin in another part of town. The defendant’s account of his whereabouts changed several times and conflicted with those of witnesses, Brent said. On the night the bodies were discovered, Charles called his girlfriend’s brother to ask for a ride home. The phone call was made half a mile from the school where the burning car was found.

Brent said Charles called his karate instructor after the murders and said: “I think I did something terrible. . . . I think I killed my family.”

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After his arrest, Charles asked his grandfather to take responsibility for the slayings because “I’m young, you’re old,” Brent said. Charles later hatched a scheme with an inmate to have his grandfather robbed or killed and then blame the intruder for the other murders, Brent said.

But the defense lawyer, suggesting his client had been set up by a jailhouse snitch, said Charles did not write the letter allegedly laying out that plot. “The source of this letter is not sitting in this courtroom,” Davis said.

Davis said Charles gave conflicting accounts of events, but those versions showed no first-hand knowledge of the crimes. The defense lawyer said Charles concocted an unreliable story out of desperation at being jailed on a charge that could send him to the gas chamber.

“Mr. Charles was willing to say anything to get himself out of this bind,” Davis said. Davis said that included the “cold” act of asking his grandfather to take the blame. The grandfather, Bernard Severino, is expected to testify for the prosecution as early as today.

Davis said the parents favored Danny as “the star” of the family, the son “who could do no wrong.” But the brothers got along and the family had no severe disagreements, Davis said.

“There are no skeletons in the closet,” Davis said. “There is no deep, dark family secret.”