By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
A trial date still appears to be at least several months away for the man accused of murder in the killings of UC Davis sweethearts John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves more than 30 years ago.
Seated in a wheelchair, defendant Richard Joseph Hirschfield made a brief appearance today in Sacramento Superior Court while lawyers discussed the DNA testing process now under way for dried blood found in Riggins' van.
Deputy District Attorney Dawn Bladet and defense attorney Linda Parisi said they expect the testing to be completed soon.
Judge Michael W. Sweet continued the case to March 12 for a trial setting.
Hirschfield (photo below from a 2004 court hearing), 61, who had been imprisoned in Washington state on a rape conviction, was identified as a suspect in the Riggins-Gonsalves slaying in 2002 when his DNA turned up on a cold-hit submission by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, prosecutors said.
He was extradited from Washington in 2004 and charged in Sacramento with murdering the 18-year-old victims.
The couple was abducted after attending a presentation of "The Nutcracker" ballet in Davis. Their bodies were later found in a ravine 35 miles away outside Rancho Cordova.
Four other suspects had initially been arrested and charged in the Dec. 20, 1980, slayings.
Yolo County prosecutors, however, dismissed those charges just before trial in 1992 when a DNA test on a semen stain on a blanket found in the van did not match any of the defendants.


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