Kreutzer Is Sentenced in Murder of Son-in-Law

Herman (Rock) Kreutzer, a former candidate for county supervisor, was sentenced Friday to 17 years to life for the 1984 murder of his son-in-law.

Kreutzer, 48, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge J. Perry Langford, who also denied motions by Kreutzer’s attorneys for a lighter sentence and a new trial. Langford rejected a motion by attorney Stephen Perrello, who argued that Kreutzer deserved a new trial because his trial attorney, C. Logan McKechnie, was incompetent.

After denying that motion, Langford allowed McKechnie to argue a motion to reduce Kreutzer’s second-degree murder conviction to manslaughter and another motion for a new trial based on alleged jury misconduct. Both were denied.

Kreutzer, whose Big Oak Ranch in East County was once open to the public for recreation, including concerts and Wild West shows, was convicted of killing James Ray Spencer, 32, who was married to Kreutzer’s daughter, Kelly. Kreutzer admitted killing Spencer, but claimed that he shot him several times in self-defense in a garage at the ranch in Harbison Canyon. Spencer was described by the defense as a drug user and wife beater who had fought with Kreutzer three weeks before the fatal shooting.

McKechnie argued that the jury erred when it found that Kreutzer acted with malice and forethought when he killed Spencer. The jurors told Langford they believed that Kreutzer acted in self-defense when he wounded Spencer with the first two shots, but they said that he acted with malice when he continued to fire at the mortally wounded man.

“It’s not second-degree murder. It’s manslaughter . . . All of the evidence presented to this jury would have forced them to find there was premeditation, malice of forethought--first-degree murder. They didn’t. . . . Now we’re faced with a jury finding that after the first two shots were fired, there was malice . . . Finding malice at that point is not supportive of the evidence,” said McKechnie.

Langford discounted McKechnie’s argument and instead praised the jury, and suggested that he was surprised when the jurors did not convict Kreutzer of first-degree murder.

The judge lectured Kreutzer, a well-known figure who ran an unsuccessful campaign for county supervisor last year, and said that Spencer, who was unarmed, was walking “into a shooting gallery” when he went into the garage where he died. Then in a reference to a stack of letters he received from people who urged a light sentence for Kreutzer, Langford said: “Mr. Kreutzer doesn’t seem to understand . . . There are a lot of people out there who don’t understand . . . It’s got to be clear that exactly what he did is exactly second-degree murder, and that is the penalty that must be imposed.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Michaels said that Kreutzer’s two sons and wife will be sentenced on Friday for their roles in the killing. Jerome Kreutzer, 27, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is facing up to 11 years in prison. Kurt Kreutzer, 20, and Herman Kreutzer’s wife, Lynne, 35, pleaded guilty to being accessories after the fact and face up to three years in prison.