San Marino murder case explores family ties

An attorney for murder defendant Christian Gerhartsreiter raised questions Friday about the relationship between a San Marino mother and her daughter-in-law.

The questions suggested that San Marino resident John Sohus might have died at the hands of someone other than the defendant, a German national who used the famous names Rockefeller and Chichester to cultivate social and financial contacts.

Ruth “Didi” Sohus owned the home in the 1900 block of Lorain Road, where her son and daughter-in-law John and Linda Sohus lived with her, and where Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest house.

Gerhartsreiter is facing a preliminary hearing for the death of John Sohus, whose bones were exhumed from a San Marino backyard in 1994. Prosecutors believe Sohus was killed by three blows to the head with a blunt object in February 1985. His wife, Linda Sohus, has not been seen since that time.

Gerhartsreiter, at the time a resident on the Sohus property, left the area in 1985.

Brad Bailey, an attorney for Gerhartsreiter, asked questions suggesting Linda Sohus might have had a reason to target her husband because of conflict between she and Ruth Sohus.

While examining Patrick Rayermann, a childhood friend of John Sohus, Bailey asked if there was “tension” between John and Linda Sohus when the three dined together in January 1985, shortly before the Sohuses disappeared.

At the time, John was torn between taking care of his mother in her senior years and his desire to move out with his wife, he said, but that didn’t appear to strain the newlyweds’ relationship.

“They were in agreement on that, there was no tension between them,” Rayermann said.

Bailey continued by pointing out Linda Sohus was much bigger than her husband. Bailey said Linda Sohus was perhaps six feet tall and 200 pounds, while her husband was closer to 5 foot six inches and 145 pounds.

“She was significantly larger than John, wasn’t she?” Bailey asked. “Six or seven inches taller?”

Rayermann acknowledged she was. “I remember she was the larger of the couple,” Rayermann said.

“It was very clear to you that John’s wife Linda did not get along with John’s mother?” Bailey asked.

“I don’t recall,” Rayermann said. “What I believe I have indicated is that Linda and John, not unlike almost every other couple in the era I knew, wanted to establish an independent household.”

Ruth Sohus’ drinking came up for the third time since the preliminary hearing started Wednesday.

Rayermann said Ruth “Didi” Sohus regularly had a drink in her hand, was surly, and usually wore pajamas when she was home.

In 1994 pool diggers exhumed three plastic bags with skeletal remains and clothing that prosecutors say belonged to John Sohus.

Lynne Herold, a forensic scientist for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said the shirt found with the remains had six cuts made with a sharp object.

“That would include any tool like a knife, a box cutter, a razor blade,” Herold said.

There were four cuts by the left shoulder and two in the left sleeve, Herold said. The cuts could’ve been defensive, or have been inflicted from behind.

“I can’t say wounds, I can say they could’ve been damage to the fabric in a defensive posture,” Herold said, recanting her previous statement that cuts were from “defensive wounds.”

One of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter’s former employers also took the stand Friday.

Stanford Phelps, 77, chairman of a former Connecticut-based business, said Gerhartsreiter was hired to do computer work for the firm in 1986.

He was fired when he refused to give Phelps information he requested.

“I said ‘What did you say?’ He said, ‘I won’t give it to you,’” said Phelps on the stand. “‘You’re done. I want you out of here in 10 seconds.’”

Gerhartsreiter used a fake social security number to apply for the job, Phelps said, under the name of Christopher Crow. On his application he said he studied at USC and worked for Gypsy Productions, as well as Crow Productions in New York.

“We found out afterwards he had a bunch of alias before and even more after,” Phelps said, “which we were ignorant of.”

The preliminary hearing is expected to end Wednesday, prosecutors said.