A Santa Rosa man accused in a cold-case stabbing death of a 55-year-old Fairfield woman in November 2003 was ordered held to answer on a murder charge, a judge ruled Thursday in Solano County Superior Court.
Ricardo Cruz, 34, is accused in the brutal stabbing death of Kathryn Vitagliano. The Fairfield Police Department had spent seven years investigating Vitagliano's death and got a break when investigators from the Solano County District Attorney's Office obtained a voluntary DNA sample from him last year. Cruz's DNA sample fit a previously unmatched DNA sample taken from a scraping of one of Vitagliano's fingernails after her death, according to an expert from the California Department of Justice.
Superior Court Judge Mike Nail made the ruling after Thursday's preliminary hearing in which Vitagliano's daughter, Honey Vitagliano, 31, entered the courtroom sobbing as she took the witness stand. She testified that she knew Cruz from high school and the two began to date several years later, but she made it clear he was not her boyfriend.
However, Cruz showered her with expensive gifts, including a $900 pair of diamond earrings, and took her on several outings to upscale restaurants and a Mendocino Coast resort.
"He spent a ridiculous amount of money for someone who wasn't a boyfriend, but I went along. It was a good time," Honey Vitagliano said.
She further testified that Cruz made a habit of calling her mother for relationship advice and made visits to her mother while she worked.
Honey Vitagliano testified she broke things off with Cruz in the weeks before her mother's death but he continually called her.
Cruz stopped calling after her mother's death, Honey Vitagliano testified, although it didn't immediately occur to her that he may be a suspect.
Cruz's defense counsel, Deputy Public Defender Thomas Barrett, sought to raise the possibility of another suspect, Kathryn Vitagliano's ex-boyfriend, who he alleged had a sometimes violent relationship with her before their break up.
In 2004, investigators contacted the man at his home in Oregon after receiving a tip that he confessed to a friend that he killed Vitagliano. The man admitted to investigators that he was still in love with Vitagliano and that he had been making efforts to locate her but had not seen her in years. Police found a kitchen knife in his car that matched a set of knives Vitagliano had owned.
However, there was no DNA evidence found on the knife, according to the California Department of Justice expert.
Nail ordered Cruz back at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 27 for arraignment. He remains in Solano County Jail custody with bail set at $1 million.
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