Trial kicks off with tales of sordid past

Deepa Bharath

Tears streamed down Barbara Brogli’s face on Monday when the

prosecutor read the charge accusing James Lee Crummel of murdering

her son, Jamey Trotter.

The 60-year-old man, already serving a life sentence for sexually

abusing a teenager in his Newport Crest condo, will face the death

penalty if found guilty of murdering 13-year-old Jamey, the youngest

of Brogli’s sons.

During opening statements Monday, the prosecution and defense

converged on one point that was indisputable -- Crummel’s long,

squalid history of pedophilia. But the defense maintained that

despite Crummel’s infamous past, he did not kill Jamey and that the

prosecution’s case was strung together on assumptions based on his

past.

Police arrested Crummel in Newport Beach in 1997 in connection

with Jamey’s death after he reportedly led police to the boy’s

charred remains in a wooded area off the Ortega Highway.

Jamey disappeared on April 19, 1979, reportedly on his way to

school in Costa Mesa. He was walking from a motel near the corner of

Harbor Boulevard and Victoria Street where he was supposed to have

taken a bus to Gisler Middle School. There was no trace of Jamey

until his dental records and braces were matched with those that

Crummel led police to in Riverside County.

Deputy Atty. Bill Mitchell painted the picture of Crummel as a

hard-core criminal who enjoyed traumatizing children -- time after

time.

“He is a pedophile who sadistically enjoys sexually abusing boys

between 9 and 15 years of age,” Mitchell said.

But Public Defender Mary Ann Galante contends this case is weak

because it is lacking in evidence.

“The cause of death is undetermined,” she said. “There is no proof

[Jamey] was sexually molested. There were no traumatic injuries

noted. This is a case based on assumptions, not proof beyond a

reasonable doubt.”

But she admitted Crummel had a “very, very bad past.”

“He’s done many bad things,” she told the jury during her brief

opening statement. “In the end of all this, you’re not going to like

Mr. Crummel.”

Crummel’s record began as early as 1962, when he was a private in

the U.S. Army, Mitchell said. He was then accused of luring two young

boys to a hill where he performed sexual acts on them. Crummel was

tried in military court, convicted and spent four years in prison,

Mitchell said.

He didn’t stop there. In 1967, in Wisconsin, Crummel picked up a

14-year-old boy who was hitchhiking, took him to the woods near Lake

Michigan, sexually abused him, then hit him on the head with a tree

branch and left him to die in a ravine, Mitchell said.

“But the boy survived,” he said. “He crawled out the next day and

was rescued. The boy told. And [Crummel] was caught.”

He was convicted and went to prison again, but was released in the

mid-’70s on parole.

“Mr. Crummel realized something right then,” Mitchell said. “It

was a lesson he learned. Dead boys can’t tell. Dead boys can’t send

him back to prison.”

Crummel was also Newport Beach’s first high-profile Megan’s Law

case. In the days leading to Crummel’s arrest, residents picketed day

and night outside his Newport Crest condo to get the man, identified

by police as a high-risk sex offender, out of their neighborhood.

On Monday, Jamey’s mother, Brogli, testified that her son, on the

day of his disappearance, had told her that he was going to school.

Brogli and Jamey were temporarily staying at a motel on Harbor

Boulevard. Jamey’s two older brothers were living with their father.

The Trotters had just gone through a bitter divorce.

On the day of his disappearance, Brogli, who usually dropped off

Jamey at school, asked him to take the city bus because she was

running late for work and he had overslept and was already late for

school, she said. Brogli said her son left the hotel room at 7:30

a.m. with a tote bag filled with his school books, navy blue pants

and an orange T-shirt that read: “I’d rather be sailing in St. Thomas

Island.”

Jamey was, in fact, planning on ditching school that day, his

friend Keith Johnson testified.

“We were going to meet before school in the park adjacent to the

school and then go to a pizza parlor and play video games,” said

Johnson, who flew in from Florida to testify on Monday.

But Jamey never showed up at the park that day or at school, he

said.

Johnson said he and Jamey were “best friends.”

“Jamey was a straight-A student and I was a straight-D student,”

he said.

They normally hung out at the beach, skim-boarded, bodysurfed,

checked out girls and rode go-carts, he said. The boys also smoked

marijuana on a daily basis, Johnson said.

“It’s what everybody did at the beach,” he said. “We were doing

what we thought we were supposed to be doing.”

But the blond-haired, blue-eyed Jamey was a happy-go-lucky person,

an outgoing, friendly character who just about got along with

everyone, Johnson said.

The prosecution is expected to continue presenting its witnesses

today.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.