february 6th, 2012, the people verse stephanie lazarus began in a courtroom in downtown los angeles. the prosecution laid out a clear case of how stephanie lazarus was deeply in love with john rutten and was devastated when he was engaged to sherry. then executed her and covered it up by staging a burglary. linda deutsche of the associated press covered the trial. the opening statement by the prosecutor was quite dramatic and he came up with the theme which was that the case was about a bite, a bullet, a gun barrel eand a broken heart and that resonated in the courtroom. the jury saw journals of stephanie s. stephanie s date book was introduced which mentioned