The grisly ‘love triangle murder’ that saw Brit Paul Denham banged up in brutal LA jail for decades… but was he framed?

WHEN Paul Denham left London for the tough streets of Los Angeles almost 30 years ago he dreamed of making it big.

After launching a thriving business making vinyl car stickers in the UK, he hoped to repeat his success in the land of opportunity.

He managed to land work signwriting for Hollywood studios and got a job in an art gallery.

He was also in love.

Paul was head over heels for pretty receptionist Delores Lagaspi after meeting her in 1993 and told pals back home he was “besotted” before they tied the knot a year later in Las Vegas.

What Paul didn’t tell his friends is that Delores was already in a relationship with someone else she had been dating since school.

Their tangled love triangle would end in intrigue and murder – and see Paul jailed for life with no chance of parole.

He was convicted of the car-to-car execution of Delore’s lover Edward Weinmann, 25, on one of America’s busiest highways.

But, in a case steeped in controversy, Paul has spent the last 27 years protesting his innocence.

He claims he was 350 miles away in San Francisco when the shooting took place in March 1995 – and has petrol receipts to prove he made the trip.

Paul’s hand was also strapped up at the time – possibly in a cast – after being shot in a bungled robbery outside a supermarket. Medical papers confirm his injury.

Now British friends are campaigning for his release and raising cash for legal experts to fight the 57-year-old’s corner.

They hired a handwriting expert who said the lead detective in Paul’s case was behind a vital piece of evidence that helped convict him.

Friend Ian Puddefoot, who met Paul at secondary school, told The Sun: “Paul is the loveliest guy, so polite and he’d never pick a fight with anyone. 

“At school, he was the one who sometimes got picked on and I’d stick up for him.

“When he was arrested he didn’t even tell his mum Molly because he knew he hadn’t killed anyone and didn’t want to worry her. That’s how sure he was that he wouldn’t be convicted.”

Cabbie Ian, 57, of Billericay, Essex, believes Paul has “cast iron evidence” he didn’t kill his girlfriend’s lover.

He added: “When I first got in touch with Paul in jail he said ‘don’t believe I’m innocent or guilty, just read the case files and then make up your mind’. So I did.

“We strongly believe that this is a case of police corruption. A handwriting expert found that one piece of evidence was actually written by one of the detectives involved in the case.

“If you put that before a jury I’m sure they would come to a different conclusion.”

A new Channel 5 documentary The Wrong Man? 20 Years Behind Bars examines Paul’s 1998 conviction and looks at key evidence surrounding the case.

It’s a story of jealousy, intrigue, stalking and a botched assassination attempt on Eddie two months before his murder. 

From prison, Paul tells producers: “At the time of the shooting I wasn’t even in the LA area.

“My medical records show I have a fractured hand, I needed a mitt to cover it and it was augmented with a splint that would have taken maybe four to six weeks to heal. I could not have shot anyone with my hand in a cast like that.”

‘Besotted’ love affair

Paul’s is an intriguing case as most of the evidence stacked against him is circumstantial – but it was strong enough for a jury to convict him in ‘98.

The story began when Paul, a talented artist who has won awards for his paintings, met Delores who was working behind the desk of a youth hostel in the San Pedro district of LA in 1993. 

Paul says: “I was corresponding with her and we went backward and forward and she came over to Europe.

“We went around Europe (together) and we just grew stronger.”

It was a love triangle and Paul was the main suspect

Ex detective Mark McGuire

Friend Ian said: “Paul said he was absolutely besotted with her (Delores). It was unusual for him to say something like that because he never really had a girlfriend that I knew of.”

The couple married a year in a hurried ceremony in Las Vegas but, for some unknown reason, kept it a secret.

Paul later claimed he only married Delores for a visa but Ian says he loved her “before he realised what she was really like”.

But there was one big problem – Delores’ second lover Eddie.

She had told Paul about the relationship early on but he forged ahead with their union anyway, perhaps hoping he would overtake Eddie in Delore’s affections. 

Homemade silencer

Two months before his cold-blooded murder, Eddie was almost killed in an attempted shooting.

Someone lay in wait for him in the back of his car while he took a night time college class and, during a struggle, fired off a round from a gun with a homemade silencer.

The bullet narrowly missed Eddie and the gunman quickly ran off. 

Suspicion fell on Paul as soon as cops discovered the complex entanglement between the three and, when Eddie was shot in the head on the busy 405 highway weeks later, the Londoner became the prime suspect.

Paul had receipts showing his trip to San Francisco before the killing but they still left eleven hours unaccounted for – time for him to fly to LA, murder postal worker Eddie and return to San Francisco.

We strongly believe that this is a case of police corruption. A handwriting expert found that one piece of evidence was actually written by one of the detectives involved in the case

Ian Puddefoot

There is no record of the Brit’s name in any flight logs but, back in the 90s, passengers could buy tickets at the airport and simply board a plane. 

Damningly, there IS a record of Paul’s car being left at the airport and a piece of paper was found at his house with the numbers of two possible flights alongside telephone numbers.

Police also found a black can of spray paint and a roll of duct tape, the same type used to create the ‘silencer’ during the attempted shooting of Eddie. 

Cops have also questioned whether Paul could have had help from a third party shooter or a passenger who drove the car while he fired the gun.

Missing gun

Cops also suspect he was never robbed at gunpoint in the weeks leading up to the killing – and claim that he ‘manipulated’ his injury as part of an elaborate cover-story. 

In the ITN production for Channel 5, they also point out Paul told officers he didn’t own a gun – despite records which showed he had bought a 380 caliber following a burglary at the couple’s home a few months earlier.

Even more mysteriously, his love rival’s house had been vandalised in the lead up to his murder.

The property was daubed with KKK for having a confederate flag in the window before being hit SEVEN times with Molotov cocktails.

Police also allege Paul was stalking Delores and Eddie after they spotted him following them in the car one day.

Retired homicide detective Mark McGuire said: “This is a love triangle case and Paul was the main suspect.

“There’s premeditation, there’s planning and lack of his (Paul’s) gun. It’s missing and I don’t know if it was used in the crime or not, but it’s gone. Where is it?”

Yet friends of Paul back in the UK are convinced he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice and have built up a powerful case which argues for Paul’s innocence.

They hired a handwriting expert who claims the note found scrawled at Paul’s home with airline numbers was written by one of the two detectives investigating the case.

Police corruption in LA was known to be rampant in the 90s and Paul had made previous complaints about his treatment by cops probing the first attempt on Eddie’s life.

Retired LAPD sergeant Cheryl Dorsey says on the show: “It’s not uncommon for officers, and I like to think they are in the minority, who will manufacture probable cause (for a case).

“I call that contempt of cop. It’s ‘You p*** me off during an encounter and there’s a price to pay.

“There were complaints Paul was making about the lead detective and so was this (note) contempt of cop? Was this payback?”

Paul also complained he was intimidated and assaulted during a police interview claiming the male detective put him in a headlock.

He says: “One minute I was answering questions, then they went berserk on me, both of them.”

Defence lawyer Darren Kavinoky, who is the creator of American docuseries Deadly Sins on Netflix, said the murder was the work of an experienced shooter.

He said: “We’re talking about the most congested freeway in the United States so the idea that you know where somebody would be at a particular time is like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Even if Paul did plan this sophisticated, elaborate situation to kill Eddie, how’s he going to know where he’s going to be at that time.

“The idea that Paul could be in the right spot at the right time to pull the trigger, it’s tough to even wrap your head around. That’s a tricky one.”

New trial fight

Paul’s American attorney Jennifer Sheetz is now fighting for a “fair and impartial” review of the case. 

She told us that Paul’s case came to light while investigating other cases involving the cop at the centre of the handwritten note.

Jennifer said: “The expert examined ten pieces of handwriting from Paul, others in the house and officers in the case and determined that the flight details were written by one of the main investigating officers.

“We also discovered in a leaked document, that that officer, after he retired, went to the Long Beach police station and removed that evidence before being told to return it.”

She pointed out that the airport car parking ticket is mysteriously ten years out of date.

Jennifer claims the Molotov attacks on Eddie’s home are more akin to gang warfare – and says he was known to have extreme right wing views at a time of racial tension.

She added: “Most of the murders that take place are with ghost guns, unregistered weapons, yet Paul had bought and registered his gun. Why would he have done that if he intended to use it to kill Eddie?”

While in jail, Paul has spent years taking courses on American law and continued his art, even winning an award for a painting depicting him as a victim of a KKK gang.

Meanwhile, Paul’s friends are left with memories of an intelligent, kind, creative, technical young lad who seemed head and shoulders above everyone else at school.

Friend Nick Watts says: “Paul was a really nice lad. A few of us were rough and ready but Paul was really switched on. Very good at making things.”

Ian Puddefoot said: “Paul has been attacked in prison before so my biggest worry is that something might happen to him before we’re able to get him home.

“His mum Molly died a few years ago so it’s sad she won’t see him released, if he is.

“I truly believe my old friend is innocent.”

• The Wrong Man? 20 Years Behind Bars airs on Channel 5 tonight at 10pm