Suspect in Slaying on Calabasas Street Pleads Not Guilty

Robert Rosenkrantz, hunted by police for nearly a month in the gunning down of a 17-year-old acquaintance on a Calabasas street, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a murder charge.

The 18-year-old Calabasas man, who surrendered quietly at a Northridge hospital early Tuesday, entered his plea before Commissioner Richard L. Brand in Malibu Municipal Court. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 4 in Calabasas Municipal Court.

Rosenkrantz was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the killing of Steven Redman of Calabasas. The charge alleges “special circumstances” of premeditation and lying in wait, which could mean the death penalty if Rosenkrantz is convicted.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives said that two Rosenkrantz family attorneys, who flanked the suspect in court, talked the young man into visiting a Van Nuys psychiatrist Monday night. The psychiatrist checked Rosenkrantz into Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he surrendered to the detectives a few hours later.

Car, Rifle Impounded

The detectives said they impounded Rosenkrantz’s car and a semiautomatic Uzi rifle, the alleged murder weapon.

Rosenkrantz allegedly blocked Redman’s car with his own on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas on June 28, argued with him briefly and then opened fire.

Following the shooting, detectives said, Rosenkrantz fled to the Stockton area, where he lived with a family whose 16-year-old son he had befriended. The family was unaware that Rosenkrantz was wanted for murder, detectives said.

Rosenkrantz is being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail’s hospital ward because authorities fear he might commit suicide.