Trial set in killing of UNR professor

RENO -- A judge Friday ordered Mohamed Kamaludeen to stand trial in the murder of a University of Nevada, Reno professor after a witness said he saw Kamaludeen stab the victim to death then helped him dump her body in the desert.

A second witness testified at a preliminary hearing in Reno Justice Court that Kamaludeen, also known as Rickey Barge, expressed concern in the days after Judy Calder disappeared in the summer that police might find blood in his van and think it was hers. And a third witness for the prosecution said Kamaludeen didn't like Calder and once approached him about the possibility of killing her.

Judge Jack Schroeder ordered Kamaludeen bound over to Washoe County District Court to face a trial on a charge of open murder.

Police allege Kamaludeen, 50, stabbed Calder a minimum of four times at his Reno business on Aug. 18 because he didn't want to repay a $150,000 debt he owed her.

Prosecutors also have filed an amended criminal complaint that alleges that if he didn't kill her himself, he could have paid someone else to commit the crime.

Carlos Filomeno, a former employee of Kamaludeen's serving a state prison term on unrelated charges, is the man who claims he saw Kamaludeen stab Calder at least three times at the printing and copying business, Imaging Technologies.

Kamaludeen claims it was actually Filomeno who committed the murder.

Reno police Det. David Fogarty testified on Friday that Kamaludeen told him that he saw Filomeno stab Calder after Kamaludeen had offered him $50,000 to kill her.

Kamaludeen chose not to testify, but Filomeno, who has not been charged in the murder, spent about two hours on the stand explaining how Kamaludeen drove him to a Wal-Mart store to buy a knife, black sweat pants, sweat shirts and shoes the night before Kamaludeen stabbed her.

On Aug. 18, the two men were at Imaging Technologies when Calder showed up about 10:30 a.m., Filomeno said.

He said he was in another room, but entered the hallway where Calder and Kamaludeen were and went to close the open front door.

"When I turned around, Judy got stabbed," Filomeno said, making a stabbing gesture with his handcuffed hand, "maybe three or more" times in an "upward motion."

"I was shocked. I can't move. I didn't think that was going to happen," Filomeno said.

"I heard (Calder's) soft voice, 'Help,' but it was too late. She fell," he said. He added that Kamaludeen said, "Hurry up, help me clean the blood.'"

"I didn't know what to do, so I helped him. I wiped the blood," Filomeno said. He said he helped Kamaludeen load Calder's body into a large plastic-lined furniture box, which they then loaded into a van

"I didn't know what he was thinking, maybe he's going to kill me too so I'm scared," he said.

He said that later in the day, with Kamaludeen driving, they headed east on U.S. Interstate 80 and he thought they were headed toward Jackpot near the Idaho line.

They ended up dumping the body in high-desert sagebrush off U.S. Highway 93 about 40 miles north of Wells, he said. Hunters found the body on Aug. 28.

In other testimony, a client of Kamaludeen's said they talked about Calder's disappearance when he came to pick up a printer on Aug. 21 at his business.

"There were a lot of crazy things going on right then. He mentioned he was afraid they might find blood in his van and think it was Judy's," Darrol Taylor testified.

A former employee of Kamaludeen's, Ray Patterson, 40, said Kamaludeen routinely "expressed how much he didn't like" Calder, partly because he said she was "an activist against the civil rights movement."

In September 2006, Patterson said Kamaludeen told him "he was sick of her and he wanted to get rid of her ... she was a pain in his side."

"He mentioned something about he had to make a payment to her and didn't want to pay her," he said.

Patterson said he thought at first that Kamaludeen was "just venting."

But then "he asked me if I had killed anyone or murdered anyone before," he said.

"He asked me if I thought I'd be able to do something like that -- to Judy. I said, 'No. It's not in my heart to do something like that," Patterson said, and the issue never came up again.

Under cross-examination from public defender Maizie Pusich, Patterson said he never warned Calder or her husband or police about Kamaludeen's statement at the time. He also acknowledged that he didn't pass that information along to police after he learned of Calder's death in September.

Dr. Katherine Raven, a forensic pathologist for the Washoe County medical examiner's office, testified that Calder was stabbed at least four times. One stab wound severed her aorta and another broke through a rib.

Kamaludeen stared straight ahead during the day's testimony with little emotion, but he shook his head numerous times at statements made by Filomeno.

He occasionally took notes with his left hand , which the bailiffs agreed to let free from his handcuffs and shackles.