february 6, 2012, the people versus stefanie lazarus, finally began in a courtroom in downtown los angelesution laid out a clear case of how stephanie lazarus was deeply in love with john rutton, and was devastated when he became engaged to sherry, and 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 a theme which was that the case was about a bite, a bullet, a gun barrel, and a broken heart and that kind of resonated in the courtroom. >> the jury saw journals police seized from stefanie's home detailing how upset she was when she learned john was engaged to someone else. >> stephanie's date book was also introduced which mentioned lock smithing books, that could explain why there was no forced entry to the condo. on the day of the murder, then patrol officer lazarus happened to be off-duty, the ammunition used in the shooting was the same time issued by the lapd said prosecutors and the same caliber as lazarus's off-duty weapon, a 38 revolv