Tapes Played in Triple-Slaying Case

KINGMAN, Ariz. —  A Lancaster man on trial here for a triple slaying was a bystander to the violence and did not confess to the crimes as prosecutors contend, his defense lawyer suggested last week.

Frank Anderson actually denied committing the slayings, telling investigators it was drifter Bobby Poyson who killed a northwest Arizona woman, her boyfriend and her 15-year-old son, Mohave County Sheriff’s Det. Eric Cooper said under cross-examination by the defense.

Cooper’s testimony came after the jury listened to several hours of interviews with Anderson, taped after his arrest in 1996. During his interrogation, Anderson insisted he was not responsible for the deaths, telling deputies, “No, I didn’t. I swear to God.”

“My lawyer is Jesus and my judge is God,” he added.

A former trailer park manager, Anderson, 49, admitted cutting the throat of the teenage boy but maintains he was responding to the screams of his girlfriend, a 14-year-old who traveled with him to Arizona from the Antelope Valley.

He did not intend to kill young Robert Delahunt and it was Poyson who ultimately did by driving a knife through the boy’s ear with a rock, he told investigators.

Poyson was also the one who fatally shot the boy’s mother, 39-year-old Leta Kagen, and shot and beat to death her boyfriend, 50-year-old Roland Wear, Anderson said during questioning.

The three victims had taken in the drifter and California couple out of kindness, then died during a ham-handed attempt to steal their pickup truck, prosecutors contend.

Poyson, 21, and Anderson’s girlfriend, Kimberly Lane, also are charged with three counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy and theft. They are being held without bail while awaiting separate trials.

Anderson’s trial will resume Tuesday after the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Closing arguments are expected Wednesday.

Anderson and Poyson could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder counts. Lane is exempt because of her age.