Kreutzer Tells of Son-in-Law’s Wife-Beating

Shootouts were a regular part of life at the Big Oak Ranch before it closed in 1983. Rival gunmen came from miles around to the East County spread to test their skills with blazing six-shooters.

But those shootouts at the frontier-style amusement park featured make-believe cowboys, who gunned for trophies instead of blood.

That changed the night of April 11, 1984.

On that night Herman (Rock) Kreutzer, owner of the Harbison Canyon ranch and a candidate for the Board of Supervisors, shot and killed his son-in-law, James Ray Spencer. Kreutzer said it was self-defense. The district attorney’s office said it was murder.

Thursday in San Diego Superior Court, Kreutzer took the witness stand at his murder trial and described the mounting family tensions that led to the shooting. He painted the picture of a loving family that accepted Spencer with open arms, until Spencer began to sell drugs and beat his wife, Kelly.

Kelly is Kreutzer’s daughter.

Kreutzer broke into tears at least twice as he answered the questions of his attorney, C. Logan McKechnie, and addressed the jury of six women and six men.

“He was helpful and very likable. We all liked him,” Kreutzer said of his first meeting with Spencer. “That was the first guy that Kelly had brought up to me to meet, so I knew that she liked him.”

Kreutzer, 48, said he was even more impressed that Spencer, 32, later came to him to discuss his plans to marry Kelly.

But things began to turn sour soon after the couple’s Las Vegas wedding, Kreutzer testified. Spencer lost his job and apartment. He and his wife were forced to move into a trailer and then a house at the Big Oak Ranch, and Spencer still had trouble paying his bills on the small salary that he made at the local bingo palace.

Spencer finally came up with some money by selling drugs, Kreutzer said.

“I told him that wasn’t the way to go about it, but he said that he was going to keep on,” Kreutzer said. “We weren’t as close after that.”

Later, Kelly came to her father and told him that Spencer beat her. She showed him bruises on her arms and chest and told her father that she wanted a divorce. “She was crying and I held her and told her she could stay with us,” Rock Kreutzer said. “And I said I wouldn’t let him hurt her.”

Later that night, he testified, Spencer called and said he wanted to talk. But when the two met on the streets of the ranch’s frontier town, they argued about a radio that Spencer had left blaring at his home on the ranch.

When Kreutzer walked away to turn the radio down, he said, Spencer hit him from behind with a 2-by-4. The two brawled and Spencer gouged at his eyes, Kreutzer said. “He had me around the neck and I realized that he was trying to break my back,” Kreutzer said. One of Spencer’s fingers entered Kreutzer’s mouth. “In desperation, I bit down on his finger,” Kreutzer said. “And I bit the end of it off.”

Rock, who says he got his nickname from his days as a Golden Gloves boxer, said he was exhausted and dazed from the blow to the head. “I felt I could not fight anymore, and I had never felt that way before,” he told the jury.

Sheriff’s deputies summoned to the scene said they would not arrest Spencer because the fight was considered “mutual combat,” Kreutzer said. Spencer went to jail a few days later, however, on an outstanding warrant from Oklahoma, Kreutzer said.

Spencer called his wife twice from jail. “His calls were a combination of two things,” Kreutzer testified. “He would tell (Kelly) how much he loved her . . . and he would say that he was going to get me and get Lynne and get Kurt.”

Lynne is Kreutzer’s wife. Kurt is his son.

Oklahoma authorities decided not to extradite Spencer, and he was released from jail April 11, 1984, less than three weeks after the fight at the ranch.

“He knew every way to get into the place,” Kreutzer said. “I didn’t know how I was going to protect the ranch. It was just chaos. Everyone on the ranch was scared to death.”

The men expected trouble and carried guns, Kreutzer said.

By the time the court session recessed Thursday afternoon, Kreutzer had completed describing the events that led up to the final encounter with Spencer. He is expected to describe that night when court reconvenes next week. Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Michaels will then have the opportunity to cross-examine Kreutzer.

On Monday, the jury will visit the Big Oak Ranch, which was closed nearly two years ago on orders from the Board of Supervisors. The board charged that Kreutzer violated fire, zoning and safety codes.