Cliff Lambert, an art dealer and socialite, was tragically killed in a cruel scheme.
Lambert was the victim of an elaborate scam in which several men conspired to kill him and impersonate him in order to steal more than $200,000 from his accounts. The plot began a month before Lambert’s murder when a man named Kaushal Niroula contacted him, claiming to be an attorney with a wealthy family who had left a will naming Lambert as an heir, according to Deputy District Attorney Lisa DiMaria during a trial for two of the men.
On December 5, 2008, while Niroula was visiting Lambert in Palm Springs, Calif., he secretly let in two other men, Craig McCarthy and Miguel Bustamante, who stabbed Lambert to death, according to DiMaria.
Just days later, the group, which included David Replogle, Daniel Carlos Garcia, and Russell Manning, collaborated to pose as Lambert, open a bank account, and give Manning power of attorney. They then transferred $185,000 from Lambert’s original bank account to the new one they set up, and DiMaria claimed they stole an additional $45,000 after that.
“It was, like, Alice in Wonderland, falling into a rabbit hole,” she told Dateline in a preview for their October 10 episode on the case. “It took me months of eating, sleeping, and breathing this case to figure it all out. My life was like this.”
The scheme began to unravel in January 2009, when Lambert’s neighbors reported suspicious activity in his home. Over the course of the following months, all six men were arrested. However, the entire process took nearly two decades to complete due to alleged judicial misconduct, retrials, and lawsuits.
Here’s everything you need to know about Cliff Lambert’s murder and the decades-long trial to convict the six men who conspired to kill and steal from him.
Lambert was a retired art collector and socialite
Lambert was 74 years old when he died and had spent the majority of his life as an art dealer and replicator, according to his friend Steven Kilcullen, who met him in the mid-1990s and spoke with NBC News in November 2024.
Kilcullen described Lambert as a wealthy socialite who rose from humble beginnings to achieve success in the art world. In addition, friend Eddie Mullikin, who met Lambert in the mid-2000s, told the outlet that he admired his friend for being a successful gay man in an era of rampant homophobia.
“It was just a really stunning example of a good friend,” Mullikin explained.
Lambert was trying to get back into the dating scene after his longtime partner died, according to former prosecutor Robert Hightower, who testified in one of the suspect’s trials. Lambert went on to join an online dating site, where he met Garcia, who was approximately 50 years his junior.
Mullikin claimed to have met Garcia when Lambert flew him down to Palm Springs in the spring of 2008. Lambert realized Garcia was looking for money for a business, so he left. Garcia was allegedly upset by the outcome and determined to obtain the money from Lambert in a different way.
Lambert was a victim of a financial scheme and was stabbed to death in 2008
Prosecutors claim Garcia began planning a scheme with Niroula shortly after his trip with Lambert. The couple allegedly later asked San Francisco attorney Replogle to get involved. Niroula was familiar with the lawyer because he had represented him in a 2002 sexual abuse case involving investment banker Thomas White.
As the three men planned their scheme, they enlisted the assistance of three additional men: San Francisco bartender Bustamante, his roommate McCarthy, and San Francisco art dealer Manning.
The scheme began in November 2008, when Niroula pretended to be a lawyer and called Lambert, claiming to represent a wealthy family who had left him money and artwork in their will. Lambert had to sign the documents in person to obtain his possessions.
On December 5, 2008, Lambert hosted Niroula at his Palm Springs home. While they were talking about the deal, Niroula secretly let Bustamante and McCarthy into the house. The former allegedly stabbed Lambert to death, and the three men then cleaned up the crime scene before leaving to bury Lambert’s body.
Lambert’s murderers impersonated him to steal over $200,000
Five days after the three men collaborated to kill Lambert, they enlisted the help of three more men to steal more than $200,000 from the late art dealer. According to the Desert Sun, Replogle posed as Lambert and opened a Wells Fargo account, giving Manning power of attorney over Lambert’s finances.
Manning then transferred $185,000 from Lambert’s real bank account to his new Wells Fargo account. A few days later, Replogle forgeried documents granting Manning power of attorney over Lambert’s estate and met with realtors to sell his home. They continued to transfer $30,000 and write a check for $15,000 before closing the account.
Lambert’s murder resulted in a nearly two-decade-long legal battle
Shortly after Lambert’s murder, his friends and neighbors reported him missing and observed unusual activity in his home.
By January 2009, authorities had begun to investigate the plot, and Bustamante was the first person arrested. Over the next few months, the conspirators turned on one another, and all six were arrested and charged with a variety of offenses, including murder, manslaughter, grand theft, and conspiracy.
McCarthy pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for testifying against four of his co-conspirators, according to The Bay Area Reporter. According to News Channel 3, he received a 25-year and 4-month prison sentence in 2013. Manning also pleaded guilty to fraud charges and received a five-year sentence. He has since passed away, according to KTLA.
Meanwhile, the Desert Sun reported that Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison without parole in January 2011 for murder and eight other felony counts. Replogle faced the same sentence and charges in a separate trial. Finally, in September 2012, Garcia and Niroula were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder and conspiracy.
However, less than a decade after Lambert’s murder, Niroula appealed his conviction and sentencing by releasing recordings of Garcia and their trial judge in which the latter made derogatory remarks, according to The Bay Area Reporter.
In 2020, a judge overturned Niroula, Garcia, Bustamante, and Replogle’s murder convictions and ordered retrials.
In 2022, four of the defendants were retried for his murder
Nearly 15 years after Lambert’s murder, four of the men convicted of his death were retried. Replogle was found guilty of murder and seven other felonies for the second time in August 2022, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. On July 18, 2025, he was resentenced to life in prison without parole.
Niroula was killed in prison in 2022 while awaiting retrial, according to the Los Angeles Times and his family’s wrongful death lawsuit. The sheriff’s office denies any wrongdoing, and the investigation is ongoing.
Garcia’s retrial in 2023 resulted in convictions for first-degree murder, burglary, grand theft, and identity theft. According to the Desert Sun, he received the same life sentence without parole in April 2025.
Bustamante was retried in 2023 and found guilty of murder, conspiracy, and grand theft, among other felonies. According to the Desert Sun, he was sentenced to life without parole in November of that year.
