Murray R. Gold Trials: 1976-92

Following administration of the drug Navane, Gold was found competent by June 1986. Trial IV saw the prosecution witnesses again describe the crime scene, including 47 fingerprints. None, cross-examination revealed, were Gold's.

New defense lawyer William Collins called on Glorianna Sanford. Despite her testimony that her ex-husband had asked her on the morning after the murders to drive him to Florida, she seemed defiantly determined to clear him of suspicion of murder. As a defense witness, observers noted, she was an asset to the prosecution.

An emergency-room doctor testified on treating Sanford on the night of the murders for a self-inflicted superficial wound to the neck. Sanford's shirt, pants, and shoes, he testified, showed an "amount of blood excessive for the wound."

Long-time Sanford friend Patricia Morrison testified that he threatened to "get" Pasternak, and that he phoned her on the night of the murders to ask her to help him leave the state, saying he was covered with blood and had done something he could never get out of.

The jury deliberated for three days before finding Gold guilty of both murders in the first degree. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of no less than 25 years nor more than life. Imprisoned, he refused to appeal.