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Kreutzer Shot Son-in-Law Despite Pleas, Jury Is Told

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Times Staff Writer

Herman (Rock) Kreutzer, the flamboyant owner of an East County amusement park, shot his son-in-law James Ray Spencer to death last year as Spencer begged for mercy, a prosecutor told a San Diego Superior Court jury Monday in opening arguments at Kreutzer’s murder trial.

According to Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Michaels, Kreutzer, owner of the Big Oak Ranch near Dehesa, shot Spencer as many as six times in April, 1984, at the culmination of a family quarrel.

Kreutzer, 48, was arrested six months later along with his wife Lynne, 33, and sons Jerome, 26, and Kurt, 19. Jerome is also charged with murder, while his brother and mother are charged as accessories. All three are scheduled for separate trials in August.

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Rock Kreutzer’s trial is expected to last at least a month.

Michaels told the jury that the murder stemmed from Spencer’s deteriorating relationship with the Kreutzer family. Spencer’s wife, Kelly, is Rock Kreutzer’s daughter. The couple had not been getting along, prompting bad feelings between the father and his son-in-law, Michaels told the jury.

Spencer and Kreutzer’s disagreements erupted into violence three weeks before the night Spencer died, Michaels said. He said the two men fought and Kreutzer bit off the tip of the younger man’s left index finger.

The bad feelings from the fight carried over to the confrontation between Spencer and the Kreutzers three weeks later, Michaels said. Spencer, 32, was shot just a short distance from Kreutzer’s home near the East County community of Dehesa. “He begged for mercy, but Rock fired more shots at him,” Michaels said.

A mannequin dressed in Spencer’s blood-stained clothing stared blankly across the courtroom at jurors as Michaels made his opening comments. Numbers marked half a dozen bullet holes in the blue jeans and shirt Spencer wore the night he was killed.

C. Logan McKechnie, Kreutzer’s lawyer, declined to make an opening statement or discuss his line of defense, but Kreutzer has said that he shot his son-in-law in self-defense.

Kreutzer gained acclaim last year when he ran for the 2nd District seat on the county Board of Supervisors. Although he received just 10% of the vote in the primary, Kreutzer was credited with depriving then-Supervisor Paul Fordem of the majority he needed to avoid a runoff. Fordem later dropped out of the race for “health reasons” and George Bailey was elected to the board.

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Kreutzer also was known as master of the Big Oak Ranch, the East County recreation center that combined big-name country music acts with carnival rides and a Wild West atmosphere.

Kreutzer purchased the ranch 10 years ago, but encountered financial difficulties and continually ran afoul of provisions in his county operating permits. County officials said Kreutzer failed to widen Harbison Canyon Road, to perform flood control work and to complete other safety measures. Dehesa residents complained about the noise and litter they said patrons of the 28-acre ranch brought to the community.

The Board of Supervisors ordered the ranch closed in August, 1983. When it remained open a month later, sheriff’s deputies arrested Kreutzer for operating the park without a permit.

Michaels told the jury Monday that Kreutzer initially told authorities that he was not at the ranch the night Spencer was killed. But Kreutzer later admitted that he killed his son-in-law, Michaels said.

Kreutzer made his first public admission of the killing earlier this year to a local newspaper reporter. “I shot the son of a bitch,” Kreutzer told the reporter. “This may shock you by my starting out that way. But I shot the son of a bitch.”

Kreutzer told the reporter that Spencer carried a gun the night of the killing, but Michaels said he would present evidence that the man was unarmed.

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Spencer had been released from County Jail on an unrelated matter the day that he died. He was at an El Cajon bar having a beer when Kreutzer and Jerome Kreutzer picked him up to take him to the ranch, where Spencer was supposed to pick up some of his belongings, Michaels told the jury.

Spencer screamed at his father- and brother-in-law, who he said had stolen tools from a garage at the ranch, Michaels said. Rock Kreutzer then fired two or three shots at Spencer, Michaels said.

Affidavits filed in the case quote a ranch employee who said Spencer crawled from the garage begging for mercy. The affidavits say Spencer cried out: “I don’t deserve this . . . it’s not too late,” and “Oh God! Don’t do it.” But Kreutzer reportedly fired at least two more shots.

Larry Stillwell, a ranch employee, reported that Jerome Kreutzer also shot Spencer and that Kurt Kreutzer arrived on the scene and told his father, “Dad, he’s still alive. Take my gun and blow his head off.”

Michaels said that he would call Stillwell to the witness stand later in the trial.

A bartender who served Spencer the night of the murder and a neighbor who reported hearing gunshots testified Monday, along with a sheriff’s deputy and a volunteer fireman who responded to the scene of the shooting.

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