Mother Begs Cooper’s Jury to Spare Him

The mother of convicted mass murderer Kevin Cooper broke into sobs Monday and pleaded for her son’s life as jurors began deliberating whether Cooper should die in the gas chamber or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“Please have mercy on my child. That’s all I’m asking. Save my child’s life, please,” Esther Cooper cried.

The jury on Monday also heard the final arguments by defense and prosecution attorneys before adjourning for the day.

Cooper, 27, was convicted last Tuesday of the brutal 1983 killings of four people who were hacked and stabbed to death in a Chino Hills home.

The bodies of Doug and Peg Ryen, both 41; their daughter, Jessica, 10, and Christopher Hughes, 11, were discovered in the Ryen home on June 5, 1983, three days after Cooper escaped from the Chino Institution for Men. The victims were hacked and stabbed with a hatchet, knife and ice pick.

Cooper and two women jurors wept as Mrs. Cooper looked at the jury and, between sobs, asked jurors to spare her adopted son’s life. She was preceded on the witness stand by her husband, Melvin Cooper, who also pleaded for mercy.

“I really think he didn’t do it,” said Mr. Cooper. When defense attorney David Negus asked Cooper if he had a message for the jury, he answered:

“I would ask them to have some compassion in their hearts . . . The truth will come out that Kevin didn’t do that.”

In addition to Cooper’s parents, Negus also called Cooper’s sister and godparents to testify in an attempt to save him from the gas chamber.

San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Kottmeier chose not to cross-examine the five defense witnesses but urged the jury to “balance the scales of justice and find that the only verdict is death.”

Cooper’s trial was moved to San Diego because of extensive pretrial publicity in San Bernardino County.