Judge Asked to Acquit Kraft on 14 of 16 Murder Charges

Attorneys for Randy Steven Kraft, on trial in the murder of 16 young men in Orange County, asked the trial judge Monday to acquit him of 14 of the murders while conceding that the jury should consider the others.

“We’re not conceding guilt on those two, but we are admitting that they include evidence for a jury to decide,” said Kraft attorney William J. Kopeny. “The defendant continues to maintain his innocence on all counts related to all 16 victims.”

Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin has scheduled a hearing on the defense request for this morning in Santa Ana.

Prosecution Concluded Case

The prosecution recently concluded its case against Kraft, and Judge McCartin has granted the Kraft attorneys a trial recess until Jan. 9, when the defense will begin presenting its case.

Kraft, now 43, was arrested on May 14, 1983, when two California Highway Patrol officers who stopped him along Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo found a dead Marine in his car. Since then prosecutors have claimed to the court that Kraft is responsible for 45 murders in Southern California, Oregon and Michigan. The trial, which began last July, could take nearly a year to complete and is expected to be the most expensive trial in county history.

If Kraft is convicted on more than one of the 16 murders, his trial will move into a penalty phase, during which prosecutors will introduce evidence of many of the other killings in an attempt to win a death sentence.

Of the two counts that the defense agrees should be decided by a jury, one involves the murder of the Marine found in Kraft’s car, 25-year-old Terry Lee Gambrel, and the other involves Geoffrey Alan Nelson, 18, of Buena Park.

Victims Seen Together

Nelson and Rodger James DeVaul Jr., 20, were last seen together on the night of Feb. 11, 1983. Nelson’s body was found early the next morning and DeVaul’s the next day. Pictures of DeVaul, clad in a jacket he had borrowed to wear that night, were found in Kraft’s car. In the photos, an abrasion is visible on DeVaul’s neck.

The defense agrees that the Nelson and DeVaul deaths include legitimate issues to present to a jury. But the Kraft attorneys are asking Judge McCartin to drop the DeVaul murder charge for another reason: His body was found in Los Angeles County, and the defense claims that there is no evidence he was killed in Orange County’s jurisdiction.

Kraft attorney Kopeny has divided the rest of the sought-after acquittals into two categories:

- Five murders in which the prosecution has linked Kraft to the victims but failed to prove Kraft killed them, according to Kopeny. The links include personal items of the victims found at Kraft’s home, pictures of one of the victims in death and Kraft’s fingerprints at one crime scene.

- Eight murders in which the defense claims that there are no links to Kraft.

It is these eight murders, Kopeny said, where the defense believes that it has its strongest argument.

“The prosecution has introduced absolutely no evidence to link Randy Kraft to the victims in this group,” Kopeny argued in his court papers Monday.

In a telephone interview, Kopeny added: “In one of the murders (Ronnie G. Wiebe), the prosecution put on its entire case in less than an hour.”

Kopeny added: “The prosecution’s case is a seamless web, where everything in it depends on everything else. If you take away some of the parts, you can see there are holes in the prosecution’s case.”

But prosecutors disagree that any of their 16 murder counts is weak.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown has a standing policy of not discussing his cases outside the courtroom. But on Monday, Brown reiterated arguments his office made in response to earlier defense motions that the evidence shows major commonalities among the 16 murders.

For example, most of the victims were drugged. Most were killed on weekends. All were white men between 18 and 25 years old. Most were dumped along freeways or nearby roadsides. Except for the lone unidentified murder victim known as John Doe, whose body was found April 14, 1973, all were known to be without transportation when last seen alive.

Prosecutors also claim that all 16 were victims of some kind of “homosexual aberration” involving mutilation or some type of violent sexual assault.

But the most important link among the 16, Brown claims, is that all but two of the victims can be found on a “death list” recovered from the trunk of Kraft’s car. The list has 61 items containing shorthand such as “EDM,” “Airplane Hill,” “MCHB Tattoo,” and “New Year’s Eve.” Brown claims that the only two of the 16 murders in trial that are not on that list are Gambrel and Eric Church, 21, whose body was found on Jan. 27, 1983; both murders occurred shortly before Kraft’s arrest.

Wiebe, for example, is linked to Kraft by prosecutors in four ways: His body was dumped along a roadway, the same as most of the others; he died of strangulation with a cord or rope, the same as most of the others; a sock had been forced into a body cavity, the same as two of the others under the prosecution theory. Also, prosecutors claim, Wiebe is represented as “7th Street” on the Kraft list because his body was found on the 7th Street on-ramp to the San Diego Freeway in Seal Beach on July 28, 1973.

But the defense argues that the Kraft list is meaningless and that nothing about the other commonalities listed by the prosecution links Wiebe to Kraft.

Kopeny asked for acquittal on only 13 of the 16 charges when he filed his motion with McCartin’s court Monday morning. But in the afternoon, after conferring with the other two co-counsels, he decided to seek acquittal on a 14th charge, the murder of Keith Daven Crotwell.

Crotwell, 19, was last seen alive leaving the parking lot of Belmont Plaza in Long Beach with Kraft on March 30, 1975. Six weeks later his skull was found against a rock jetty in Long Beach, and his skeleton was found in Laguna Hills 5 months after that.

Kraft, interviewed by the Long Beach police, admitted being with someone he met at that parking lot that night but denied knowing anything about Crotwell’s death. The defense claims that prosecutors have failed to disprove Kraft’s statement.

Kopeny acknowledges that the defense request for acquittal on these 14 murder counts is important for the appellate record as well as for Judge McCartin’s consideration.

“I think McCartin is going to take a hard look at this, particularly the group of eight (in which the defense claims there are no ties to Kraft),” Kopeny said. “But if he doesn’t dismiss them now, we believe there is a good chance that an appellate court will do it later.”

Every judge who has presided over the Kraft case so far has refused to dismiss any of the murder charges. McCartin has already turned down the defense request for dismissals in three murders in which they could show law enforcement authorities had destroyed some physical evidence.

While prosecutor Brown won’t comment on Kopeny’s motion for 14 acquittals, he did say during a pretrial argument on the issue: “The defense keeps talking about weak murder counts and strong murder counts. We don’t see it that way. We think they are all strong counts.”

SIMILARITIES OF 16 MURDERS IN RANDY KRAFT CASE

This chart, prepared by the Orange County district attorney’s office, shows similarities in circumstances of the 16 Orange County murders charged to Randy Steven Kraft. Viewed together, they portray the defendant’s method of operation, prosecutors say.

Kraft’s attorneys acknowledge some similiarities but insist that there are also numerous differences among the murder victims.

Shaded boxes indicate which murder victims fit into various categories. White spaces indicate that the victim did not fall into that category.

* Electronic version has been adjusted to provide accurate translation of printed graphic data. Terry Lee Gambrel Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Alcohol Drugs Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Geoffrey A. Nelson Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Rodger J. DeVaul Jr. Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Had Been Bound Shoeless/No Laces Eric H. Church Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Weekend/ Holiday Robert W. Loggins Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Sexual Aberration No Car Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Donald H. Crisel Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Michael J. Interbienten Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Keith A. Klingbeil Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Richard A. Keith Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Roland G. Young Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Scott M. Hughs Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Body Dumped Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Mark H. Hall Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Alcohol Drugs Valium Sexual Aberration No Car Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Weekend/ Holiday Keith D. Crotwell Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Drugs Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Noted on Kraft List Weekend/ Holiday Ronnie G. Wiebe Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Body Dumped Alcohol Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday John Doe, H.B. Male White 18-25 Years Old Body Dumped Alcohol Sexual Aberration Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday Edward D. Moore Male White 18-25 Years Old Single Marine Body Dumped Alcohol Sexual Aberration No Car Last Seen on Foot Had Been Bound Noted on Kraft List Shoeless/No Laces Weekend/ Holiday