Judge Sets November Trial Date for Accused Serial Killer Joseph Naso

Bay City News Service–A Marin County Superior Court judge Wednesday morning set a trial date of Nov. 5 for accused serial killer Joseph Naso, a one-time resident of Piedmont.

Deputy District Attorney Rosemary Slote estimated that the trial will take four to five months, and said twice as many prosecution witnesses will testify in the trial as in the nine-day preliminary hearing in January.

Slote had asked for the trial to begin in August, but Naso requested that it be scheduled for October or November to allow him more time to work with his advisory counsel. Judge Andrew Sweet accommodated Naso's request and scheduled the trial for November.

Late last month, Naso retained attorney Michael Marowitz to advise but not represent him during his quadruple-murder trial.

Naso has been representing himself in the case, in which he is accused of murdering four Northern California women between 1977 and 1994. The murders were of Roxene Roggasch, 18, of Oakland, in Marin County in 1977; Carmen Colon, 22, in Port Costa in Contra Costa County in 1978; Pamela Parsons, 38, and Tracy Tafoya in Yuba County in 1993 and 1994 respectively.

The Marin County District Attorney's Office intends to seek the death penalty if a jury decides Naso committed multiple murders.

Naso lived in Piedmont during the late 1970s and early 1980s, who attended Piedmont schools with his sons, and possibly longer.

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