Charges Stand in Calabasas Killing

Despite pleas from the victim’s mother and grandmother, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has decided not to reinstate charges that could bring the death penalty to an 18-year-old Calabasas man charged with murdering a schoolmate.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Curt Livesay said prosecutors will not reinstate an allegation of lying in wait against Robert M. Rosenkrantz, accused of the June 28 murder of Steven Redman, 17, also of Calabasas.

Redman’s mother, Barbara, and grandmother, Evelyn Alexander, collected more than 700 signatures on petitions protesting the Oct. 1 decision by prosecutors to drop the allegation. They presented the petitions to Livesay, who is third in command in the district attorney’s office and who oversees all death-penalty cases.

Livesay said he visited the scene of the killing, reviewed police reports and preliminary hearing transcripts and discussed the case with sheriff’s investigators and deputy district attorneys.

“After all that, I concluded that the evidence would not sustain our burden of proving murder while lying in wait,” Livesay said.

California voters in 1978 made commission of a murder while lying in wait one of several special circumstances that allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty or life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Prosecutors originally said they decided to drop the allegation against Rosenkrantz, in part, because they believe he sat in his car for several hours near Redman’s house before arguing with Redman and shooting him nine times with an Uzi semiautomatic weapon. The special allegation requires concealment and ambush, prosecutors said.

Rosenkrantz, who pleaded innocent to one count of murder, is being held in the Hall of Justice without bail. His attorneys are scheduled to meet with prosecutors today to set a trial date.

Rosenkrantz now faces a maximum sentence of 27 years in prison if convicted. With credit for work and good behavior, he could be released in 14 years, Livesay said.

Police believe that Rosenkrantz killed Redman because Redman and his best friend, Rosenkrantz’s 17-year-old brother, Joey, spied on Rosenkrantz during a homosexual embrace, then told Rosenkrantz’s parents and schoolmates what they had seen.