San Diego

The attorney for Jerome Kreutzer, 26, said Monday he has filed motions seeking a separate murder trial for his client instead of a joint trial with his client’s father, Herman (Rock) Kreutzer. The two are accused of shooting Herman Kreutzer’s son-in-law, James Spencer, 32, six times on April 11 at Kreutzer’s Big Oak Ranch, an entertainment Old West theme ranch that is now in bankruptcy proceedings. Herman Kreutzer’s wife, Lynn, 34, and his other son, 19-year-old Kurt Kreutzer, are charged as accessories to murder. Attorney Frank Nageotte confirmed his severance motion after San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Kremer on Monday delayed the Kreutzers’ trial until June 6. Nageotte said he filed the motion after publicized interviews given by the elder Kreutzer, 48, to several newspapers and television stations in which Herman Kreutzer said he shot Spencer in self-defense. “The actual interview itself (in the San Diego Tribune) is exonerating, but I’m concerned how it would be perceived by a jury. Those statements might in some ways hurt my client,” Nageotte said. The Daily Californian and KFMB-TV (Channel 8) also interviewed Herman Kreutzer. Herman Kreutzer’s attorney, C. Logan McKechnie, said Monday that Nageotte’s motion was “appropriate” and predicted it would succeed in separating the two men’s cases. Prosecutor Brian Michaels could not be reached for comment. The trials of Lynn Kreutzer and Kurt Kreutzer have already been severed from that of Herman Kreutzer.