The gay San Francisco attorney convicted in a notorious Palm Springs 2008 murder says he's innocent and is confident his conviction will be overturned on appeal. In an exclusive telephone interview with the Bay Area Reporter on Wednesday, May 21, David Replogle said his trial was unfair and that he was not allowed to call a number of witnesses to the stand that would have made a difference in his case.
"This is right out of Putin's Russia, and you can quote me on that," Replogle said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and comparing that to his treatment by the legal system in Riverside County.
Replogle, 76, is the last of four men to be sentenced for the murder of 74-year-old Palm Springs retiree Clifford Lambert. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 27. He is expected to be given a life term without the possibility of parole. Replogle, along with two other gay men, Daniel Garcia and Kaushal Niroula, were dubbed the “gay grifters” because of other cons that they were alleged to have orchestrated.
Police say Daly City resident Miguel Bustamante stabbed Lambert to death in 2008 with his kitchen knives. Another man, Bustamante’s roommate, Craig McCarthy, testified against the other men and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, avoiding a life sentence.
Niroula had pretended to be an attorney and set up meetings with Lambert to discuss an inheritance due to Lambert. During a meeting in Lambert’s house, he surreptitiously let Bustamante and McCarthy into the home. Lambert, a former art dealer, heard a noise in his kitchen and confronted the men there. That’s when Bustamante stabbed him to death, according to McCarthy.
Prosecutors say that after the murder, the men stole Lambert’s car, some of his possessions, and tried to sell his home. They say that although Garcia and Replogle were not present during the murder, they conspired with the other men to commit the crime.
Lambert’s remains were found in northern Los Angeles County in 2016 and 2017 but weren’t identified until 2020.
Niroula was stabbed to death by a cellmate in 2022. Niroula’s family is suing Riverside County for wrongful death. They say Niroula identified as a transgender woman at the time of her death and should never have been put in a cell with a male sex offender.
Juries convicted Replogle, Garcia, and Bustamante twice for the murder of Lambert. The men’s first convictions were thrown out as a result of a judge being secretly recorded by Garcia saying that he wouldn’t open paperwork from Niroula because he was HIV-positive. Niroula was murdered before he could be retried.
The case has generated renewed interest with the sentencing of the last two men, Replogle and Garcia, and with the new podcast, "America Hustlers," a 12-part series documenting the case. The podcast credits the book, "Until Someone Gets Hurt," as an invaluable resource tool for the production of the series. The authors, Tyson Wrensch and Sherrie Lueder, were interviewed for the series.
Wrensch recounted in the book and the podcast his story of being conned by Garcia, his former best friend. He told the B.A.R. that the title of the book was a quote from a police investigator who told him that they could do nothing to investigate Garcia’s alleged cons “until someone gets hurt.”
Replogle apparently is still allied with Garcia, his former client. He told the B.A.R. that the paper should interview Garcia for the truth of what really happened in the case. In an exclusive jailhouse interview with the B.A.R. in February, Garcia vigorously maintained his innocence and said he was confident that his conviction would be overturned on appeal.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s office said it would not comment on Garcia’s interview with the B.A.R. because, at the time, he had yet to be sentenced and that his conviction is being appealed. A spokesperson issued a similar statement Tuesday about Replogle.
“Our office does not comment about cases until they are adjudicated (after sentencing),” the spokesperson stated in an email.
Garcia was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole April 25.
Replogle said he would speak at length with the B.A.R. following his sentencing next month. He reiterated that his treatment by the legal system in Riverside County was similar to how Russian President Putin deals with his adversaries.
