DUBLIN — When David Misch goes on trial for allegedly killing 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in 1988, he’ll be facing a potential sentence of life without parole once again.
Alameda County prosecutors have re-filed their murder case against Misch with a special circumstance alleging he murdered Michaela during the commission of a kidnapping. The move undoes a previous decision made under ex-District Attorney Pamela Price, who largely opposed sentencing enhancements that carried life without parole.
For 64-year-old Misch, the effects of this decision are largely symbolic.
He has been convicted of three murders, all in the 1980s, all seemingly involving a sexual motive. His record is full of sex crimes, violence, and a lack of remorse, most recently demonstrated last January when he sang “99 Bottles of Beer” at the hearing where a judge sentenced him to 50 years to life for murdering best friends Michelle Xavier, 18, and Jennifer Duey, 20, in 1986.
In short, the idea that he’d be able to convince a parole board to free him seems like a long shot.
But when Price’s office dismissed special-circumstances charges against Misch in 2023, it led to controversy and outcry from the victims’ families and prosecutors within the office. Price was recalled in 2024 and replaced by Ursula Dickson Jones, who has pledged to seek harsher penalties than her predecessor and charged special circumstances in other murder cases.
When Dickson Jones’ office moved to reinstate the special circumstances enhancement, Misch’s lawyer filed a motion calling it a “vindictive and arbitrary” attempt.
“Here, Mr. Misch is being punished for exercising his right to trial in the Fremont case and his decision to go to trial on his Hayward case,” defense attorney Ernie Castillo wrote.
Michaela was at a Hayward corner store buying candy with a friend when she was abducted on Nov. 19, 1988. Her kidnapper placed her scooter next to his parked Oldsmobile so he could snatch her when she emerged. In 2020, authorities said that fingerprints found on the scooter, previously believed to be unusable, had been linked to Misch.
Hundreds of cops, family members and volunteers searched for Michaela after her disappearance and found nothing. A common theory posits that Misch allegedly dumped the girl’s body in a wooded area near Niles Canyon, but no proof was ever found.
Misch’s lawyer has previously argued that there’s no definitive proof Michaela actually died.
Misch, a Santa Clara native, is due in court next on Oct. 10 for a trial date to be set. Last year, he was convicted of murdering Duey and Xavier in a remote part of Fremont, after either luring or forcing them to the area.