Richard Henry Wall and his $2 million house on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro (Photo by Vladimir Otasevic)
A former Southern California businessman sought in connection with the ambush slaying of a Rolling Hills Estates lawyer and the home-invasion killing of a Whittier man lives in a $2 million home along the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro, where the lack of an extradition treaty with the United States protects him from arrest.
Richard Henry Wall, 67, who was identified in 2017 as a suspect in the killings, as well as a homicide in Las Vegas, recently denied committing the crimes or that he fled Whittier for the Balkan nation to avoid prosecution.
“I’m not guilty,” Wall said in a telephone interview. “The story that I’m hiding here from Interpol is just an attempt to make some sensational story about some cop as a hero blaming me for the death of some people I know. I don’t know where they got it from and why.”
In the spring of 2017, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the killing of attorney Jeffrey Tidus. Detectives later identified Wall as a suspect, but said they believed he had fled the United States for Montenegro, a country bordered by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. Montenegro and the United States do not have an extradition treaty that would enable police to take him into custody and return him to California.
Award for information about the businessman
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has not filed any charges against Wall.
In the recent interview, Wall — who formerly owned a Whittier company that manufactured fixtures — denied that he and his wife moved to the town of Dobrota in the city of Kotor to avoid arrest.
“They made up the whole story of my hiding in Montenegro,” he said. “I sold the company and we went looking for a new place to live. We didn’t want to stay in California. We bought a house in Montenegro and now we live here.”
Sheriff’s Detective Mike Davis, who is assigned to investigate the Southern California crimes, declined to discuss the case.
“Because it’s ongoing, I can’t comment on any of it,” Davis said. However, he said he has “heard the same things” about Wall’s life in Montenegro.
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman referred questions about Wall to the Justice Department, which did not respond to an emailed inquiry from the Southern California News Group. A U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman said the agency does not comment on investigations, including whether any exist, and referred questions to the Justice Department.
Families wait for justice
For the families of the murder victims, time has passed quickly as they wait for justice. Tidus’ wife, siblings and other family members recently marked the 10th anniversary of his slaying, performing the Jewish ritual of lighting yahrzeit candles to burn in their homes.
“It’s very rough after 10 years and it hasn’t been resolved,” said Amy Zeidler, Tidus’ sister.
Tidus’ brother, Michael Tidus, was surprised to learn about Wall’s lifestyle.
“It’s saddening and disappointing,” Michael Tidus said, adding that he is frustrated no one has been charged. “Whoever did it is getting away with murder. And he’s on the list.”
Tidus killed execution style
Although Wall is not suspected of pulling the trigger on Tidus, homicide detectives believe he orchestrated the Dec. 7, 2009, execution-style shooting outside Tidus’ house on Sugarhill Drive in Rolling Hills Estates. Tidus and his wife, Sheryl, had just returned home at 8:30 p.m. from a fundraiser. They went inside, but Tidus returned to his car to collect his laptop computer.
Sheryl Tidus heard the gunshot and found her husband on the ground. Tidus, 53, died the next morning.
As investigators searched for a motive, suspicions focused on whether anyone involved in Tidus’ legal battles had sought revenge. An accomplished litigator, Tidus’ firm, Baute & Tidus, had high-end clients that included major banks, savings and loans, mortgage firms and automakers.
Two years earlier, Tidus won a major civil court verdict for his client, Jon Gunderson, in a business dispute with Wall and another man, court documents show. Jurors said Wall and his company had engaged in fraudulent activity and ordered him to pay $2.5 million. Just weeks before Tidus was shot, the California Second District Court of Appeal upheld the jury verdict.
Whittier man worked for Wall
In another crime that appeared at first to be unrelated, two men burst into the home of 35-year-old Juan Gabriel Mendez-Ramirez on Painter Avenue in Whittier on Feb. 26, 2011, and shot him dead in front of his young children.
Whittier police and Sheriff’s Department detectives found out that Mendez worked for Wall’s business and two years earlier had sued his boss, alleging Wall failed to pay employees overtime and did not allow them to take breaks. That case settled for an undisclosed amount.
Suspecting Wall’s involvement in both homicides, detectives served search warrants at Wall’s business and home in the summer of 2017. They were told Wall was on vacation at the time.
Las Vegas man owed money
In Las Vegas, detectives soon publicly identified Wall as a suspect in the May 20, 2008, killing of David James “DJ” Vargas, in his home near the Las Vegas Strip. Police said Vargas owed Wall $100,000 he had borrowed to start a limousine business.
“It certainly appears all roads lead back to Richard Wall,” now-retired sheriff’s homicide Lt. Victor Lewandowski said in September 2017.
By the time Lewandowski made that comment, Wall apparently was long gone.
Putting down roots in Montenegro
Records at Montenegro’s Central Registry of Business Entities show Wall and his wife, Victoria Adhara Wall, established two businesses in Kotor, a secluded coastal city of about 13,000 residents along the Gulf of Kotor. One business, Me.WeldedFixtures LLC, a manufacturer of office and shop furniture, was registered on June 6, 2017. Records at the Tax Administration of Montenegro showed the company had working capital of $2.4 million.
On July 7, 2017, just days before investigators held a news conference to identify Wall to the media, Wall and his wife purchased the $2 million multistory villa in Dobrota. Kotor’s Real Estate Administration records show the Walls made two payments of about $500,000 within the first 30 days of the sale and completed the transaction with a $1 million payment within another 45 days.
A statement that the purchase price has been paid
During that period, Victoria Wall registered the second business in her name. Castor LLC, a company for “buying and selling your own real estate,” was registered on Aug. 8, 2017.
According to Redfin.com, the Walls listed their Whittier home for sale on July 7, 2017, and closed a $970,000 sale two months later on Sept. 5. Two online real estate sites, including Blockshopper.com, show Castor LLC as the parcel owner, along with Richard Wall.
Montenegro’s real estate records show Castor LLC “liquidated” on Nov. 6, 2017.
Community benevolence
In Dobrota, neighbors said the Walls developed good relationships with influential members of the town. A radio station posted a news brief on its website on Nov. 17, 2017, that said the Walls made a “valuable donation” of 15 computers to the local elementary school. The principal, Nebojsa Kuc, said in a later interview that the computers were worth about $6,000.
“They came to the school on their own initiative and asked if we were in need of some supplies or similar,” Kuc said. “I said that we lack the computer room and that we do not have the computers needed for students’ schoolwork.
“They immediately decided to help us and they donated computers to us. These are extremely good people.”
Kuc added, however, that Wall landed in court before long in a dispute with a neighbor over air conditioning and a deck.
“I tried to help them,” Kuc said. “I even called the mayor, Zeljko Aprcovic, because they are good people, but no one could do anything because the dispute already came to the court in Kotor, which will make a decision.”
In October 2018, records show the Montenegro Environmental Protection Agency issued Wall a license to import a 10-year-old, 13-pound female macaque monkey from the United States. Neighbors said they never saw the monkey.
In an interview, Wall said he was happy in Montenegro and had done nothing wrong in the United States. He said the news media framed him.
‘I’m fine here’
“I’m fine here,” he said. “I have no problems either here in Montenegro or in California. It was just an exciting news story there, how one man got a verdict on me and how I had to pay him millions of dollars. In fact, he owed me.”
Wall claimed Mendez sued him after he allegedly was fired for selling drugs to his employees, alleging Wall owed him money.
“When he was killed, it was thought that I had liquidated him for an alleged debt, but it really wasn’t,” Wall said. “You see, things are different in California. There are many migrants and if one of them is fired he has many institutions at his disposal to complain about his injuries at work, and because of that he was fired.”
Detectives said Mendez was not a drug dealer.
Authors: Vladimir Otasevic, Larry Altman and Sasa Lekovic
Larry Altman is a former reporter for the Southern California News Group who covered the Jeffrey Tidus killing. Vladimir Otasevic and Sasa Lekovic reported from Montenegro with support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. This investigation also published an american media Daily Breeze .