David Replogle (Riverside County Prosecutor”s Office).
A 76-year-old attorney will spend the rest of his days behind bars for his role in murdering an art dealer and burying his body in a Southern California mountainside.
David Replogle was convicted nearly two years ago for the 2008 death of art dealer and Palm Springs socialite Clifford Lambert. The jury found Replogle guilty of eight felonies including first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, burglary, grand theft, identity theft and forgery. On Friday, a judge sentenced the now former attorney to life in prison, the Riverside District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
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Replogle was one of six people who conspired to stab Lambert, 74, to death in his home on Dec. 5, 2008. The suspects then transported Lambert’s body to Los Angeles mountainside where they buried his body. Authorities later recovered a jawbone and skull which were positively identified as Lambert’s.
Prosecutors said Replogle used his legal credentials to forge power of attorney documents so the suspects could drain some $185,000 from Lambert’s bank accounts and gain access to his home and art collection.
Replogle was found guilty in 2010 but that verdict and those of his co-defendants was thrown out “due to prosecutorial misconduct,” per the press release. NBC News reported the misconduct stemmed from a comment a judge allegedly made about not wanting to touch an envelope because one of the co-defendants was HIV positive. Replogle’s sentencing was held up because of multiple motions for a new trial that were subsequently denied, according to prosecutors.
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The defendant professed his innocence earlier this year in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter.
“This is right out of Putin’s Russia, and you can quote me on that,” he told the outlet, claiming he was unable to call witnesses during trial he thinks would have made a difference in the case.
Co-defendants Kaushal Niroula, Daniel Garcia, Miguel Bustamante, Craig McCarthy, and Russell Manning were convicted for their roles in the scheme. Manning and Niroula died after their convictions, prosecutors said. Garcia and Bustamante also received life sentences while McCarthy pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for his testimony against the other men, per the Reporter. McCarthy is reportedly eligible for parole next year.
The case gained notoriety in part because Niroula posed as an exiled prince from Nepal, per NBC News.
