The State - News from Sept. 24, 1985

After a two-week delay while the judge went on a honeymoon, trial resumed for a Hanford youth charged with having his parents murdered so he could claim his inheritance. Trial began late last month on charges that Kevin Yocum, 20, hired friends to murder Ray and Gayle Yocum who were gunned down in their home Dec. 20, 1983. The jury case was put over the past two weeks while Santa Clara Superior Court Judge William Fernandez went on his honeymoon. The trial is being held in San Jose because of pretrial publicity in Kings County. Testimony was presented from the parents of Larry Spanke, 18, who agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testimony against Yocum and two other defendants. One youth, John Allen Cox, 19, has been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.