SAN DIEGO — The night 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe was murdered, her accused killer prowled the Escondido neighborhood where she lived, peering in windows and knocking on doors in a bizarre effort to locate an ex-girlfriend named Tracy, a police officer testified Monday.

Richard Tuite

San Diego County Sheriff's Department homicide investigator Victor Caloca testified that he interviewed a half dozen Escondido residents who had contact with the 34-year-old drifter, Richard Tuite, between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. that night. Stephanie was murdered in her bed between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., and small droplets of her blood were later found on Tuite's shirt.

The hearsay testimony was allowed into evidence because it came during a probable cause hearing, now in its fourth day, to determine if there is enough evidence to try Tuite for murder.

According to Caloca, the events of that night, Jan. 20, 1998, unfolded as follows:

• Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., Deanette Mogelinski heard a knock on her door and, believing a neighbor was knocking, said, "Come in." Instead, Mogelinski met Tuite, whom she described as a "lost soul with dilated, Charles Manson-like eyes." Tuite was looking for a woman named Tracy, but Mogelinski told him no one by that name lived there and he had to leave. Moments later, the door opened again, and Tuite re-emerged and said, "Tell her that Richard came by."

• Between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., resident Sheldon Homa Sr. was watching TV when he noticed a person, later identified as Tuite, peering through the window. Homa grabbed an axe and confronted Tuite, who left after Homa informed him that no one named Tracy lived there. Believing that the disheveled visitor might have been her ex-husband, Dawn Dexter and her then-fiance, Shannon Homa, got in a truck to look for the stranger. According to testimony, they found him in a church parking lot spinning in circles, looking toward the sky with his palms facing upward.

• At about 7:15 p.m., Sharon Thomas pulled into the church parking lot to pick up her son and came across Tuite "yelling and cussing." She quoted him as saying, "You [expletive] bitch. You better never do it again." Thomas told Caloca that she admonished Tuite for his language and then left with her son.

• Between 9:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., Misty Green and her husband, Patrick, were in their trailer on property owned by her father, Rev. Gary West, when they heard a loud pounding at the door. "I want to see your daughter," someone on the other side shouted. Green called her father in the main house, and West then heard a knock on his door. Grabbing a flashlight and his dog, West confronted Tuite and told him he had to leave. Tuite wanted to stay and talk but eventually was backed down the driveway. West called 911 at 9:28 p.m.

• At 9:37 p.m., Escondido patrol officer Scott Walters responded to the call but could not find West's home initially. After getting better directions, he looked in the area for the stranger but could not find him. Walters drove up the Crowe family's driveway just in time to see someone entering the house through the laundry room door. Unable to see who entered the house, Walters left the area without any further investigation.

• At about 11:30 p.m., after the time prosecutors believe Stephanie was murdered, Cynthia Ames spotted a man looking in the direction of the Crowe house. Although Caloca testified on direct examination that Ames identified Tuite, the testimony was stricken on cross-examination. According to the defense, Ames has previously said that the man he saw was much taller than Tuite, wore different clothing and had much less facial hair.

Stephanie Crowe

If Judge Gale Kaneshiro finds probable cause to hold a trial, as expected, the defense will likely make much of Ames' testimony during the murder trial.

Statements made by Stephanie's brother, Michael Crowe, and his friends Joshua Treadway and Aaron Hauser about their own involvement in the crime are also key planks in the defense's case.

Although Crowe and Treadway initially confessed to the crime, their confessions were thrown out or limited, and charges against them were eventually dropped. Prosecutors moved Monday to keep the defense from introducing a videotaped confession by Treadway. Kaneshiro ruled that the tape could be played, but stayed the hearing until Feb. 19 to give the prosecution time to bring the matter before an appeals court.