To Meet With D.A. Official : Slain Boy’s Mother Strives to Restore Ambush Charge

The mother of a Calabasas teen-ager gunned down in front of their home this summer is scheduled to meet today with a high-ranking official of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to appeal for reinstatement of a charge that could mean the death penalty for the man accused of killing the youth.

Barbara Redman, whose 17-year-old son, Steven, was shot to death June 28, has collected more than 700 signatures on a petition protesting a decision by prosecutors to drop allegations that Robert M. Rosenkrantz ambushed her son.

Prosecutors announced Oct. 1 that they were dropping the allegation of “lying in wait” from the murder charge against Rosenkrantz, 19. Under California law, only persons convicted of murder with “special circumstances,” such as lying in wait, can be sentenced to death or life in prison without possibility of parole.

Redman, 40, said Monday she intends to ask Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay, third in command in the district attorney’s office, to reinstate the charge in a meeting at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

“I would not want to see my son’s murderer ever walk the streets again,” Redman said. “We feel that one man has no right to drop this. As the mother of my slain son, at least give me the benefit of the doubt that a jury decided it . . . Let a jury hear it so that this mother can rest in peace.”

Mike Carroll, who heads the Van Nuys branch of the district attorney’s office, said he made the decision to drop the lying-in-wait charge. Among the reasons, he said, was that Rosenkrantz’s car was not hidden from view when it blocked Steven Redman’s car, and that Rosenkrantz confronted Redman before opening fire. Other factors were Rosenkrantz’s age and the absence of a criminal record, Carroll said.

Police have alleged that Rosenkrantz shot Redman nine times with an Uzi semi-automatic rifle purchased a few days earlier with his mother’s charge card. During Rosenkrantz’s preliminary hearing, several witnesses testified that they saw Rosenkrantz’s car outside the Redman condominium on Las Virgenes Road several hours before the shooting, which was witnessed by a businessman.

Police have speculated that Rosenkrantz committed the crime because Steven Redman and Rosenkrantz’s younger brother, Joey, had discovered him in a homosexual embrace.

Livesay, who oversees potential death-penalty cases, said it is legally possible to reinstate the allegation if new evidence is presented. But such instances are rare, he said, although it is not uncommon for relatives of victims to push for stricter penalties.

Rosenkrantz, also of Calabasas, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with a gun, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. If convicted and given the maximum sentence, he could be released in 13 years, with credit for good behavior and work.

Barbara Redman said the thought of that horrifies her.

She said she is reminded of the crime every time she leaves her home. To do so, she must pass the bullet-pocked section of street where her son was killed.

“It kills me every time. I can’t pass by without thinking, ‘my son was shot on that spot,’ ” Redman said, as she pointed out the four holes left in the street from the gunfire.

Redman, a sandy-haired woman who is just under 5 feet tall and weighs about 85 pounds, is divorced. Steven was her only child.

“We’ve got a lot of people behind us and we’re determined,” Redman said later, chain-smoking and sitting in her living room with her black-and-white cat, Napoleon, at her side.

“We’ve got people all over Los Angeles who want this reinstated,” said Steven Redman’s maternal grandmother, Evelyn Alexander, displaying petitions bearing 746 signatures of residents from the San Fernando Valley and communities as far away as Palos Verdes, Santa Fe Springs and Buena Park.

They hope to have hundreds more signatures by today’s meeting, said Alexander, who plans to accompany her daughter. “It’s caused a lot of public outcry. A lot of people are just furious about it,” she said.

‘I’m a Fighter’

“I’m a fighter for a good cause. He was such a good kid. I miss him so terribly. That’s why we are fighting. Our hearts are broken. We don’t even know what it is to have a little laughter in our life anymore,” said Alexander, who broke into tears several times.

Alexander said she has gotten hundreds of signatures by taking petitions door to door in Calabasas and in her own neighborhood in Van Nuys.

“People, when they would read it, would practically grab it out of my hands to sign it,” she said.

Redman said she had the petitions circulated by friends, several of whom live in the South Bay area, and passed them out to members of organizations to which she belongs.

“How can all this be brushed off by one man? How can this be erased?,” she asked. “We feel that one man has no right to drop this.

“I don’t care what the jury comes back with, I just want the jury to have all the information. Let the jury decide,” she said.

Rosenkrantz is being held without bail in the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles, which is used to house homosexuals, first-time prisoners and other special inmates. At the request of his lawyer, Rosenkrantz was transferred there from the Central Jail’s “high-power” section, which houses notorious or dangerous prisoners.