Trial begins for alleged Judy Calder killer



By Kyle Magin
Bonanza Staff Writer,
Jury selection and opening statements were completed this week in a trial of a man accused of murdering Incline Village resident Judy Calder last year.

Mohamed Kamaludeen, also known as Rickey Barge, is being tried for murdering a person older than 60 with a deadly weapon, and solicitation for murder, in the August 2007 slaying of Calder, 64, at the Second Judicial District Court in Reno. A jury was selected for his trial Monday and opening statements were delivered Tuesday.

According to a Tuesday Associated Press report, Kamaludeen said during the first day of the trial that Calder’s husband, James, recruited him to murder her. James Calder declined comment, according to the report, due to an ongoing civil suit the Calder family has filed against Kamaludeen.

On Aug. 18, 2007, Kamaludeen is accused of stabbing Calder at least three times in the stomach and chest at a Reno warehouse Kamaludeen owned.

Witness Carlos Filomeno, an infrequent day-laborer for Kamaludeen and illegal Filipino immigrant, claims he saw Kamaludeen stab Calder because he owed her a large sum of money, more than $150,000.

At Kamaludeen’s February preliminary hearing, Filomeno claimed Kamaludeen offered him money to kill Calder. After Kamaludeen allegedly stabbed her, the two loaded Calder into the back of a van and dumped her body about 40 miles north of Wells, Nev.

Hunters found Calder on Aug. 28, 10 days after her family last heard from her, and nine days after husband James Calder reported her missing.

Kamaludeen then went on the run, driving throughout the southwestern United States before fleeing to Mexico. It was there that Mexican police apprehended Kamaludeen last September before extraditing him back to Washoe County’s custody in January. Kamaludeen's release was predicated on a U.S.-Mexico prisoner extradition treaty stipulating he not face the death sentence, which his charges allow for had he been apprehended domestically.

Kamaludeen's Washoe County public defender, Maizie Pusich, said she will focus on poking holes in the testimony and attacking Filomeno’s credibility.

Filomeno, whose story varied at times at Kamaludeen's preliminary, is in custody by Washoe County on a separate felony offense.

“It’s not just at the prelim, but he changed his story or added details numerous times to police, and his credibility certainly is a question with us,â€