Sgt. Bill Barry of the Lodi Police Department answers questions from Darin Wales, director for New Dominion Pictures, as sound mixer Paul Kalbach checks the sound Monday. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Film crew recreates murder case against Lodi resident

"And, action!"

As cameras rolled Tuesday afternoon in front of Lakewood Drugs, Lodi Police Sgt. Bill Barry drove up to the Ham Lane shopping center. He got out of his dark blue police car and walked over to a young woman who was sweeping the sidewalk.

"Have you seen this lady?" Barry asked, showing her a photograph.

That scene was repeated several times Tuesday -- sometimes redone when a truck engine was too loud or a white car was too bright.

A film crew was gathering footage for what will become a fall Discovery Channel show on the murder in Lodi of Susan Avitt and the conviction of her husband, Charles Avitt.

The four-member team from Virginia-based New Dominion Pictures had begun filming Monday and had erected an elaborate display of lights, wires and equipment in the Lodi Police Department building.

Seated on a backless stool in the investigations area, Barry sat straight and looked toward the video camera lens that was only feet away.

More than 13 years after the Lodi mother of three was found murdered, Barry recalled the woman he only got to know after she was dead and he became the lead investigator in the case.

"She was an ordinary person with a place in the community -- a job, a life," he told future television viewers.

Using papers on a clipboard as a guide, Director Darin Wales stood just next to the camera. He asked Barry what the investigator believes happened in the Avitts' Lincoln Avenue home in the early hours of Dec. 17, 1990.

"We will never know every aspect of what happened the night (Susan Avitt) was murdered," Barry began.

Michael Bratkowski, director of photography, checks the frame as he works at Lakewood Mall on Tuesday while filming a show about the Avitt murder for the Discovery Channel. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

He went into detail about what police pieced together from pieces of a Kleenex box, diapers, blood spots and a bullet casing. Then Wales asked for the "Reader's Digest version," or a shorter synopsis.

"Sometime during the night, while Susan was asleep in bed next to Charles, he picked up the gun, used something to muffle the sound and fired the gun into the back of her head," Barry said.

The Avitts would have celebrated their 10-month wedding anniversary that day.

Avitt case resurfaces

Nearly two years later, a jury convicted Charles Avitt of first-degree murder for financial gain -- due in part to the fact that he was in debt and had taken out an insurance policy on Susan Avitt. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In 1999, he was transferred to a Montana prison to be near family, but last December he escaped from prison and found shelter by breaking into a veterinary clinic. He was recaptured the following day, and pleaded guilty last month to escape and burglary -- picking up an extra 20-year sentence.

News of Avitt's escape caught the attention of researchers working for New Dominion Pictures, and they learned that detectives and prosecutors had relied on forensic evidence to crack the case.

The Avitt case was a perfect story for their show, "The New Detectives," that focuses on the use of forensics in crime investigations.

"This case was really a triumph of the professionalism of the officers gathering evidence -- from the blood in the towel to the bullet in the wall to the fibers in the carpet," said San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Tom Testa, who prosecuted Charles Avitt in the lengthy trial.

Testa, who has appeared in several television specials on various high-profile murder trials, first tried to stay away from this production, in part because he felt the focus should remain on the officers and the evidence. But, he said, he finally decided to do it so that he could help educate the public about what really happens in such cases.

The film crew agreed to rearrange their schedule and interviewed Testa on Monday so he could catch a Tuesday flight to Bali. Prior to going before the cameras, Testa had spent several hours reviewing the case over the weekend.

The prosecutor met the film team in Lodi, where they interviewed him for about 40 minutes.

"(Charles Avitt) is really not your run-of-the-mill criminal you see in the comic books that Batman and Spiderman have to fight," he said, recalling that Avitt even helped distribute fliers the day after he reported his wife missing.

Remembering the case

At first, Barry said, investigators had no leads. All they knew was that the woman had disappeared. Her husband told police she had gone to run errands, and he had an alibi that temporarily held up.

As volunteer police Partners moved around in the background Monday, Barry methodically responded to director Wales' questions. Sound Mixer Paul Kalbach sat nearby, listening through a large set of headphones as he slightly turned knobs on a machine.

"At the time that -- let me start over," Barry said, quickly getting back on track.

The case moved quickly back to that bitterly cold December.

Two days after she disappeared, a man preparing to dump tires under a railroad bridge south of Stockton found Susan Avitt's body. She was dressed in bright red clothing, almost as if someone wanted her to be found, Barry said.

Then her purse was found in a garbage bin at Lakewood Mall. A bloody towel in the Dumpster matched the towels in the Avitts' home, as did other evidence. Police continued to work through the Christmas holiday.

Charles Avitt's alibi began to weaken, especially when police learned that he was nearly $100,000 in debt and had finalized a $150,000 life insurance policy on his wife only months earlier.

They uncovered evidence that Avitt was unhappy with his marriage, and that he sent his picture to singles magazines, Barry said. And they found a package of bullets -- with six missing -- that matched the one used to shoot Susan Avitt.

Actor gets 'arrested'

On Dec. 29, 1990, police arrested Charles Avitt. He was charged with first-degree murder.

Jason Ruderman of Walnut Creek reads his script while other film Tuesday afternoon at Lakewood Mall. The Discover Channel is producing a show based on the Avitt murder. Ruderman is portraying Charles Avitt. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

That scene was recreated Monday, and Barry pretended to book an actor playing the role of the accused murderer.

"Sgt. Barry is so good. I really felt like I was being booked last night," said Walnut Creek resident Jason Ruderman, who was wearing a green shirt that had been tagged with his character's name.

Ruderman, whom Barry said looked like a cross between Bill O'Reilly and Tom Hanks, got the acting job through a Bay Area agency.

Most of the actors on hand Tuesday at Lakewood Mall had been called on short notice and were told when to arrive in Lodi.

"They just called me yesterday. I'd never even heard of Lodi," said Juette Raphael, who only moved to California from Tennessee five months ago.

Raphael's role was that of a clerk who walked out of Lakewood Drugs to set up a display of colorful flags, and was then stopped by Barry and asked to identify a photo. At one point, Raphael had trouble with the folded flags, and he later joked that his parents would wonder why he couldn't even put a flag in place.

The large microphone, camera and wires caught the attention of numerous shoppers who stopped to take in the action.

"Uh oh," one teen said to his friends as Barry got out of his unmarked police car.

Another woman stopped to ask, "Is someone missing?"

The filming soon moved to the south side of the mall, where passing motorists spotted the film crew and then took a second glance.

There police officers and actors recreated the scene when Susan Avitt's car was found abandoned in a parking lot. A tow truck even arrived to haul the vehicle away.

Though most of their work in Lodi was finished Tuesday, the film team will continue working through most of this week. The show will likely air in about six months.

It took a lot of work, said Barry, who also remembered the emotions officers had to face when they learned the Lodi woman had been murdered.

"We were standing out there in the bitter cold, with the train flying by, looking down at her, dressed in her red Christmas outfit," he recalled.

Barry and Testa both tried to emphasize the fact that numerous officers spent hours trying to find the woman, then solve the crime.

"(Charles Avitt) almost got away with this murder. Had it not been for the work of those officers, he would have," Testa said.