With the DNA evidence against him, particularly that which was left on Brianna Denison’s body and that which was left on the back doorknob of the MacKay Court address, it appeared that the detectives had successfully built a rock-solid case against their suspect. There were also the gray fibers that had been recovered from the December victim’s clothing. That victim, who had been sexually assaulted inside a pickup truck, had provided significant details about the crime and her attacker, in addition to the fiber evidence. Police knew that the truck Biela had owned at the time of the December attack—but had subsequently sold—had gray upholstery.
Washoe County DA Richard Gammick called a press conference at the Reno Police Department, near the downtown Reno area, to tell the community about the events of Biela’s arrest. A large crowd, which included several members of Brianna’s family, showed up to hear what the officials would have to say about the arrest. Gammick told the crowd that he and Deputy District Attorney Elliott Sattler would be prosecuting Biela, but the DA said that he would determine later whether or not he would seek the death penalty in the case.
“We’re going to prosecute this case to the maximum,” Gammick said. “He held the community at bay way too long, and is what I call a ‘hometown terrorist.’ There’s no question about it.”
“He was the unassuming monster we had been saying he would be, the whole time,” Lieutenant Robert McDonald said. “He is a dangerous individual who was stalking women by stealth and escalating in his violence. He was a local terrorist and frightened the community for nearly a year. We’ll all sleep a little better tonight, but there’s always another monster hanging around. We got him, but let’s not put our guard down.... What a great Thanksgiving gift for the community. It’s something to celebrate.”
Lauren Denison told reporters that she and her family were pleased that Biela was in police custody, where he “can’t hurt anyone else.”
“Can you believe it?” Lauren said. “The police said the DNA came back, and it’s him. . . . That’s huge for us—that we’re not waking up every day wondering, ‘Has he struck again?’ This is what we have been waiting for.”
Crying, Lauren read a statement at the public gathering on behalf of Brianna’s mother and brother: “‘On behalf of Bridgette and Brighton, and the whole Zunino-Denison family and the Bring Bri Justice Foundation, we are pleased this person is off the streets and can’t hurt anyone else. I want to thank law enforcement, the media, and the community for working together as a team and not ever giving up and making it happen so we can get this guy.’”
“I’m proud of our unit for sticking together and not giving up,” Wygnanski told reporters. “My condolences to the family and thanks to our own families for putting up with us for all the long hours we worked. It’s just very rewarding for us to finally get this person. We did everything we could to eliminate him [from suspicion as the person responsible] and we couldn’t. All we had was evidence to say that he was responsible. I’m happy for the Denison family, and it brings a form of closure, but it will never bring Brianna back.”
Chapter 13
The news of Biela’s arrest traveled quickly through the community. Residents living in the area where Brianna was snatched expressed their relief that Biela was in custody, and UNR students were particularly elated that a suspect in the murder and community rapes had been identified and jailed. Although students expressed a sense of relief, there was also a strong sense that they would continue to remain on their guard and continue traveling in groups, particularly when they were out late. Many said that they planned to continue to avoid walking alone on the streets, whenever possible. University police were also relieved, but they approved and supported the caution that was still being exhibited by the students.
“He can’t hurt any more teenagers . . . like I am,” said an eighteen-year-old female UNR student.
“A lot of us around here were still scared something might happen,” said a male sophomore student who, just before the start of the new school year, had moved into the house from where Brianna was abducted. “It’s good to know they got him.”
K.T. Hunter was understandably one of the many students expressing relief on learning that Biela had been arrested. K.T. said that she was “crying with happiness” over the arrest, and was at the same time “excited.” She also experienced revulsion, she said, at the sight of his photo, which had begun appearing all over the media outlets by that time.
“I was so grossed out and I wanted to throw up and yell at him,” K.T. said of seeing Biela’s photograph. “I had just as much emotion when I saw his picture as I did when they said they found her body. I am relieved. I am happy he was found and that he’s not going to get away with what he did, and now girls on campus can finally feel safe.”
K.T. said that she was actually surprised at what Biela looked like, and she found it repulsive that he was the father of a small child.
“I am really disgusted because I know what he did,” she said. “But I thought he would look creepier and would be younger.”
“We would remind the community that the arrest of this one suspect should not give people a false sense of security, or reduce their desire to be vigilant in practicing personal safety on a daily basis,” UNR police director Adam Garcia told a gathering at a press conference after news of Biela’s arrest was made public. “University police will continue to provide information and services, and will continue to urge students to exercise caution and practice sound safety measures both on and off campus.
“We congratulate the Reno Police Department and all law enforcement agencies involved in the ongoing effort to solve this case, which had a huge impact on the university community,” Garcia added. “Even though the arrest cannot make up for the loss of Brianna, it is extremely satisfying to know that the suspect in this terrible crime may now face the consequences of his actions. We hope the arrest will bring some peace to Brianna’s family.”
At his arraignment the morning after his arrest—the same day that his DNA sample had been matched to the rape and murder cases by the crime lab—Biela appeared before a justice of the peace to acknowledge that he understood the charges facing him. He also claimed indigence and requested a public defender; the judge set his preliminary hearing for two weeks later, on December 10, 2008. He was taken back to the Washoe County Jail and placed in the facility’s infirmary section and kept under suicide watch, which was standard for a prisoner facing charges as severe as his. According to Deputy Brooke Keast, Biela’s demeanor since his arrival at the jail appeared to be one of disbelief. He also declined all interview requests from the news media.
That same morning, Wygnanski and Jenkins, along with a group of crime scene technicians, showed up at Biela’s Wingfield Springs home, located on Allegrini Drive in Sparks, and began searching it for any evidence they could find that might be related to any of the crimes that Biela was suspected of committing. A
Reno Gazette-Journal
reporter watched from a distance as the group of investigators from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office dug and probed around in the backyard of the Allegrini Drive residence. The details of whatever the officers were searching the backyard for were not revealed at that time. Detectives also searched his new vehicle, and another team of investigators had already located the pickup he’d sold in Idaho in March 2008 and had made preparations for it to be searched, too.
When detectives fanned out and made inquiries throughout the neighborhood where Biela lived, many neighbors said that they did not know the suspect and did not see him very often. Biela’s next-door neighbor told the officers that he had heard the loud knocking of the police early that morning, but said that he did not know what the commotion was all about. The neighbor told a reporter for the
Reno Gazette-Journal
that the only times that he had seen Biela was when Biela either left his home to go outside or went back indoors, coming or going from his garage, or when he returned home from work.
“It’s scary,” the neighbor said. “We were not friendly—we never talked—so we don’t know anything.”
“We had no idea who he was,” said another neighbor. “Just looking at him, he doesn’t look like he’s that type of man.”
Another neighbor, who lived across the street from the house that Biela shared with his girlfriend, told the investigators that she recalled when the couple had moved in, around three years earlier. She said that she had never actually met the couple, and had not seen them talking to others in the neighborhood. She said that she thought it unusual that they stayed to themselves, especially considering the fact that they had a child.
“Normally, the kids play together and the parents talk,” the neighbor said. “He seemed like a nice, normal guy. Isn’t that what the neighbors normally say? I guess killers don’t wear a sign.... This is too unbelievable. I’ve seen him come and go for three years. It was a really unbelievable thing to do, and it was really unbelievable it was the guy across the street.”
Yet another neighbor agreed that Biela had always kept a low profile within the community. She said that she could not recall having ever seen him or his girlfriend, and she did not know whether their child was a boy or a girl. The neighbor, who ran a day care center from her home, said that she and a friend routinely went out walking at 4:45
A.M.
daily. She said that in hindsight it was scary, with him having lived so close to her.
“I carried Mace and my friend carried a baseball bat, but we were never worried about a person,” the neighbor said. “We were worried about coyotes.” After Biela’s arrest, she and her friend must have come to feel that there had been far more dangerous predators than coyotes in the area.
A young woman who brought her son to the neighbor’s day care center on a regular basis said that she often left her seventeen-year-old sister waiting in the car while she dropped off her child. Sometimes her sister would be left alone for as long as fifteen minutes or more.
“They thought [he] would be a regular guy, with a regular family, and he is,” said the woman. “I never thought it would be here. We just don’t think about it in this neighborhood.... He could have been watching me the whole time.”
The woman said she would never fail to lock her car in the future, regardless of where she was.
Another Reno resident, a man who had known Biela for approximately four years, recounted a recent encounter with the accused killer.
“I just had a beer with him, sat right next to him, the other night,” the man said. “He’s the last person I’d think of as doing [the things for which he was charged]. He’s a really likeable guy. He’s funny, great to be around.”
A short time later, Joseph “Joe” Biela, James Biela’s father, spoke with a reporter from the
Reno Gazette-Journal.
The heavily-tattooed, bespectacled father, with long, straggly graying hair and a Ho Chi Minh–type beard, explained that he had not spoken with James for several years. The senior Biela acknowledged that he was upset about the news of his son’s arrest and the allegations facing him.
“I did not do this. He did,” Joe Biela said. “And now he’s going to have to suffer for it. The cops have evidence.”
Joe, a former U.S. Marine and truck mechanic, said that he had moved his family to Reno from Chicago in 1990. He was long divorced from his wife, who had remarried and relocated to Spokane, Washington. Joe said that his son James had two brothers, one of whom had died, and two sisters. He explained that he had moved to Reno to find work, but he had become disabled, could no longer work, and lived on disability benefits. He said that he was rarely visited by his sons.
The senior Biela, who spent much of his time in a wheelchair inside a North Reno trailer home, said that James, whom he referred to as “Jimmy,” was his youngest child. He told reporter Martha Bellisle that his children—Joey, Kristi, Jeffrey, Kimberly, and James—were all born in Chicago in the aforementioned order. Joey, he said, died while he was still an infant.
“Joey is in Heaven,” he said. “He hit his head in the crib three days before he was nine months old.”
Joe confirmed his son’s trouble in the Marine Corps and how Jimmy was discharged for “doing drugs.”
“A couple of years ago, he (James) comes here with his girlfriend and baby and says everything is okay,” Joe said. “But it wasn’t. . . . Why did he do this to this lady? I’d like to know why he did what he did.
“He’s still my son,” the father added. “He’s my blood. I will always love him and back him up. But I can’t help him. He did it to himself. I had no signs that he could do something like that. No signs at all.”
As details of the arrest continued to circulate quickly throughout the Reno area, it was reported that local attorney David Houston, known for handling high-profile cases, had been contacted by Biela’s family to determine if he was interested in representing the murder suspect. Among those Houston had defended was murder suspect Chaz Higgs, convicted of murdering his politician wife, Kathy Augustine. Houston acknowledged that he and another attorney had spoken with Biela’s family about taking on the case. However, the attorney added that they had not yet decided whether they would accept or not.
“The primary concern is whether it is possible for anyone accused to get a fair trial in this case,” Houston said. “So many people are ready to point the finger based on an accusation.... Anytime you have a high-profile case, you have a large number of people who have formed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of an individual without having seen the evidence, having seen the evidence tested. . . .”
Houston seemed somewhat dismayed that people had already begun discussing what type of punishment should be meted out against the defendant in the event that James Biela was convicted. He said that such discussions were premature, even though detectives had linked Biela to the murder of Brianna Denison and the rapes of some of the other victims.
“How valid is the DNA sample?” he asked. “How valid is the evidence control? It is so emotionally charged that people want to believe we have arrived at an answer. Because of that, there may be a willingness to overlook what would otherwise be thought to be fair procedure.”
Much to the chagrin of the populace at large, Biela did not look like a monster, like many people had thought he would look, which is typically the case in such investigations. There were no fangs, no dripping saliva, little or nothing to make him stand out in a crowd. Instead, he was reasonably good-looking, and was the father of a four-year-old child. Biela even regularly picked the little boy up from a day care center. He had an attractive girlfriend and they lived in tract housing in a Reno suburb and shopped at the malls and grocery stores, where everyone else shopped. Even though investigators had said that the killer at large might have been someone known to the victims, that turned out not to be the case. Police had found nothing to connect Biela to his victims in any way, meaning that he had selected his victims totally at random, making him an even more chilling person, given his appearance of normalcy. Residents had conjured up monstrous images of the man who victim descriptions said had kept his pubic area shaved. Biela, who they learned had a fetish for collecting women’s underwear, was the picture of a normal guy to those who did not know him well.
Some of the residents of Reno had slept better after Biela’s crimes ceased because many people believed, correctly, that he had left the area, thinking that he had gone in search of a new, fertile stalking ground. He had returned after only a short absence, though, and was living in their midst. He could have very well been biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike again. Thankfully, the
unassuming monster’s
world fell apart before that could happen.
Meanwhile, a Washoe County judge set December 10, 2008, for Biela’s preliminary hearing. Although Biela claimed that he was indigent and asked for a public defender, attorney David Houston and another lawyer, Byron Bergeron, said that a decision had not yet been reached on whether they would defend Biela or not. It was obvious that his case would not be an easy one to defend, particularly with one large cloud looming overhead: There was no way to know whether the plumber-turned-rapist-and-murderer, with martial arts skills, could get a fair trial in Washoe County.