Stephanie Lazarus, former LAPD detective who shot ex-lover's new wife, has parole denied again

A former Los Angeles Police Department detective who admitted to shooting and killing her ex-lover's new wife was denied parole for a second time on Wednesday. 

Stephanie Lazarus, now 64, was sentenced to 27-years-to-life in a state prison back in 2012, three years after she was arrested and more than 26 years after the murder happened in 1986. 

Previously a detective who worked with LAPD for 25 years, specifically as an art theft investigator, Lazarus was convicted for the murder of 29-year-old Sheri Rasmussen, the director of nursing at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, who was wed to John Ruetten, a man who she had confessed to being in love with to close relatives.

Initially, detectives presumed Rasmussen's killing was a botched burglary attempt, and years of further investigation turned up constant dead ends. 

Lazarus confessed to the crime, but only in 2023, during her previous request for parole, which was initially granted but rescinded after California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed concerns, which included the fact that she "evaded justice for more than two decades and did not appear to begin taking full accountability for the murder until she was finally caught."

"It makes me sick to this day that I took an oath to protect and serve people, and I took Sherri Rasmussen's life from her, a nurse," Lazarus said, according to a transcript from her 2023 parole hearing. "All I could think about what getting out of there before the police showed up."

Lazarus shot Rasmussen three times at the condominium she lived in with Ruetten in Van Nuys, whom she had married three months before she was killed. 

"I will never, ever harm an individual like I did on February 24, 1986, when I murdered, callously murdered and heinously murdered Sherri Rasmussen," the transcript from Lazarus' hearing said. 

Related: Family of woman killed by jealous ex-LAPD detective hopes parole is denied

Prosecutors back in 2009 said that Lazarus killed Rasmussen in a jealous rage due to the fact that Ruetten had dropped their previous relationship, which dated back to the time they were both UCLA undergrads between 1978 and 1982. Their relationship continued past college, including during the time that she had joined the police academy. 

Ruetten was among the group of family members that requested the review board deny her parole request. He said that she used police training to cover up the crime and that she is "going to say whatever is necessary to get parole."

"I cannot accept that anything she says is genuine," he said, noting how Rasmussen lost her life simply for knowing and loving him. 

During the most recent parole hearing, Commissioner Kevin Chappell said that she was found unsuitable for parole after determining that her testimony about the 1986 attack did not "match up with the evidence" used to convict her in 2012. He said that more of her DNA would have been found at the scene if the incident was in fact a "fight" as she had testified. Instead, he said that "you were the only one engaging in this extreme act of violence."

Lazarus was arrested in 2009 after LAPD investigators matched it to DNA from a bite mark on Rasmussen's leg, which was pulled at the scene decades ago. 

Shortly after his daughter was killed, Nels Rasmussen, the victim's father, urged police to investigate Lazarus, who had been an officer for two years at that point. Despite his request, the case officially went cold until 2004, when it was reopened by detectives who wanted to examine the bite mark tissue sample, which was stored in an evidence room freezer since 1986. 

She said she was sorry that it took more than 20 years for her to be arrested and that she was sorry she didn't plead guilty at the initial trial. 

Her last parole bid, which came in May 2024, suffered a setback when the parole board ordered a new hearing to determine if there was good cause to rescind the parole grant. 

LAPD Detective Greg Stearns, who helped finally bring her into custody after establishing her connection to Ruetten, along with the prosecutors from the 2012 trial, Shannon Presby and Paul Nunez, were among those opposing her parole bid. 

During the trail, Presby that said Lazarus' claim of her gun falling out of a fanny pack during her struggle with Rasmussen is "just not credible" and that she was able to "hide what she did from every person in her life."

Lazarus only retired from the LAPD following her arrest in 2009, which happened during the department's downtown Los Angeles headquarters. They were able to justify a cause for taking her into custody after following her in order to get a DNA sample, which they collected from a drink cup and straw she had thrown away in a trashcan outside of a Costco. 

They matched that DNA to the previously tested sample from 2004, which determined the major profile was from a female. Thus, investigators turned their attention on women who might have had reason to harm Rasmussen. 

According to the appellate court panel's ruling, Lazarus' DNA "precisely matched the profile of the person who bit Rasmussen shortly before her death." 

A 2015 letter written by Associate Justice Nora Manella on behalf of the appellate court panel said that "the evidence of motive and the circumstantial evidence, combined with the presence of appellant's DNA on a wound inflicted on the victim during her struggles with her assailant, provided convincing evidence of appellant's guilt."

Lazarus is again eligible for parole in 2028, but is eligible to file a petition for an earlier hearing should there be a change in circumstances.