Murder case returns to court Monday

Deirdre Newman

The key witness for the defense team of James Lee Crummel will be

back in a Riverside County courtroom Monday.

Crummel’s defense is trying to get testimony from James Munro

admitted in his upcoming trial. Crummel is charged with killing a

Costa Mesa teenager, Jamey Wilfred Trotter, in 1979.

Munro has told five people, over a period of 22 years, that

executed murderer William Bonin, the infamous “Freeway Killer,”

killed Trotter, said Mary Ann Galante, lead defense for Crummel.

But in court last week, he refused to testify, invoking his rights

not to do so under the Fifth Amendment.

So, he will be back in court this Monday.

“The judge said that he had reconsidered and that he is not sure

that Munro can take the Fifth Amendment,” Galante said.

Whether Munro ultimately takes the stand or not doesn’t alter the

prosecution’s contention that Crummel killed Trotter, Deputy District

Atty. Bill Mitchell said.

“Whether he gets on the stand and answers questions or stands mute

and takes the Fifth doesn’t affect the fact that Bonin wasn’t

responsible for the Trotter murder,” Mitchell said.

Crummel’s defense team filed its request to admit this evidence in

Riverside County Superior Court on Feb. 19. Crummel, who is in prison

on other convictions and was charged with one count of murder with

special circumstances in the Trotter case, pleaded innocent in 2000.

The prosecution contends that Munro has disavowed his statements

blaming Bonin for Trotter’s murder.

Galante said Munro told her he took back those statements because

he is afraid the District Attorney’s office will use his testimony as

a defense witness against him when his parole hearing comes up in

September. Munro is serving a life sentence for being an accomplice

in Bonin’s murder of hitchhiker Steven Wells.

Mitchell said Munro’s alleged reason for recanting his statements

doesn’t make sense.

“If he were coming forward and telling the truth, that would be a

plus for him,” Mitchell said. “If he were lying and then getting on

the stand and committing perjury, that would hurt his chances for

parole, I would think.”