Ellroy, James - Crim..

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10:20A.M. Thursday, 11/20/97:
THE CALIFORNIA MEN'S COLONY AT SAN LUIS OBISP0. SERGEANT BILL STONER
REPRESENTING SHERIFF'S HOMICIDE. DETECTIVE GARY WALKER REPRESENTING EL
MONTE PD. THE SUSPECT: INMATE ROBERT LEROY POLETE JR. PRISON #B84688.
The interview was held in a small administration office. A window overlooked the prison yard. Bill
Stoner sat at a desk. Inmate Polete sat in a chair directly in front of him. Gary Walker sat to the side of
the desk and faced Inmate Polete diagonally.
Bill Stoner's first impression of Inmate Polete:
"He looked soft. He was about thirty pounds heavier than his '73 arrest statistics. He had a paunch, and
his body wasn't toned. His hair had receded in front. He looked like a blond surfer kid who didn't take
care of himself as he got older. He didn't look in any way menacing."
Stoner and Walker identified themselves. They said they were investigating a 1973 murder. Inmate
Polete was a suspect then. They read Inmate Polete his Miranda rights.
Inmate Polete waived his right to have a lawyer present. He said he knew the murder they meant. He
took a polygraph test in '73 and passed it. The test guy asked him some questions about this woman's
murder.
Stoner said he did not pass the test. The result was "inconclusive."
Inmate Polete explained. He said the cops asked questions about the other cases before he took the
test. The cops asked him about the murder. He got scared and confused. He said, "Yes, I did it," out of
fear and frustration.
Koury and Meyers had not stated that he made a flat-out admission. They said he got right to the brink
and retreated.
'My dad's got heart trouble. This would really kill him."
Inmate Polete insisted that he did pass the test. Stoner told him that he did not.
Detective Walker asked Inmate Polete to describe his life in 1973. Inmate Polete said he worked in his
dad's print shop. They lived behind the shop. Him, his dad, his mom, and his kid brother.
He went to Sierra Vista High School. He played the cymbals and the sousaphone in the school band. He
went to the Pentecostal Church at Five Points in El Monte and dated the minister's daughter. He worked
at C&R Printing part-time.
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