Alleged Confession Fails to Halt Son’s Trial

The district attorney’s office plans to resume prosecution today of a Pasadena man accused of murdering an elderly relative, even though the defense contends that his mother has confessed to the killing.

Saying that “nothing has changed” since the existence of LaVerne Dennis’ purported tape-recorded confession was disclosed when the trial opened last week in Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry Green said he will proceed with his case against her 33-year-old son, John Iner Botting.

“Obviously, we have to believe that the man is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or we don’t try the case,” Green said.

Botting is accused of strangling Iner Alvin Thor, his mother’s former brother-in-law, to collect money from Thor’s estate. Murder for financial gain can be punished by death or by life in prison without parole. The former auto restorer has maintained his innocence and is facing his second trial on the charges. His first ended last year in a hung jury. Botting has been in jail since his arrest in July, 1984, a few weeks after Thor, 78, was killed.

Defense attorney Rayford Fountain, who disclosed the existence of the alleged confession to jurors in his opening statement last Thursday, said the tape was made during an interview with Dennis in November. Fountain did not play the tape to jurors, but a copy was made available to the prosecution. The defense allowed The Times to listen to the tape.

On the tape recording, a sobbing woman who identified herself as Dennis said she strangled Thor during a drunken argument in the bedroom of the Pasadena house she and her son were sharing temporarily with the victim. The woman said that her son was out all night with friends and did not return home until several hours after the killing.

“Iner found me and he got mad because I poured out his booze,” the woman said during the taped interview with Fountain. “ . . . He called me in around 3 or 3:30 (a.m.) and he kept screaming . . . ‘What’d you do with my booze?’ He grabbed my hair and pulled me and we struggled.

“He’s strong in the hands. I had a (rope) belt and he grabbed it and I took it away from him and strangled him. . . . I put it (the belt) around his neck to hold him down and I guess I killed him. I meant to keep him away . . . I didn’t realize I killed him.”

Dennis has refused comment concerning the tape. Her attorney, Robert J. Brown, said in an interview that he has advised her to take the Fifth Amendment if she is called to testify during Botting’s trial.

Brown has confirmed that his client has made a “taped statement” and said he believes that it is admissible as evidence. “The only thing I can tell you is that there is one and it (the statement) is on tape,” he said.

On the tape, the woman identified as Dennis said she told her daughter Rondi Edwards that she killed Thor. Edwards confirmed in an interview with The Times that her mother confessed to her.

Fountain said he intends to play the tape today for Judge Lillian Stevens and to ask her to dismiss the charges “in the interest of justice.” If that fails, Fountain said, he will ask the judge to release Botting from jail and to turn over prosecution of the case to the state attorney general’s office where he said he believes his client will receive fairer treatment.

Stevens had recessed the trial until Monday to give Green and investigators time to review the tape, but the judge became ill and resumption of the trial was postponed until today. Stevens could not be reached for comment, but said last week she would not discuss details of the case with reporters.

Green declined to discuss the contents of the tape in specific terms, but said:

“In this case, as in every case, we are open to new evidence. Based on what I know now, nothing’s changed. Pieces of evidence can’t be taken by themselves. We have carefully analyzed what we have, objectively analyzed what we have, and we are ready to proceed with the trial.

Fountain said he believes the tape “has the ring of truth” to it. “She broke down and cried,” he said. “If I didn’t think there was truth to it, I’d probably have kept my mouth shut and gone on with my defense. Most parents aren’t willing to sacrifice their lives for a grown son.

“I think the district attorney’s office and especially Mr. Green have a vested interest in prosecuting this case, which blinds them from objectively scrutinizing the confession that was made by the mother. My client was amazed that the D.A. intends to prosecute him after his mother came forward and confessed to the crime. They’re very hard-nosed. My only worry is that the D.A.’s office has lost sight of the fact that they truly may have an innocent man on trial.”

In a statement delivered by Fountain to reporters last Thursday, Botting said: “I was stunned by the whole thing. I desperately wanted the truth to come out, but I’m very sorry that it came out the way it did.”

Fountain said in an interview that Dennis approached him just before a Nov. 12 pretrial hearing for Botting and told him she wanted to confess to killing Thor. She was ushered into a conference room and delivered her statement voluntarily, Fountain said. The statement was witnessed by Fountain’s legal secretary and an associate attorney, he said.

‘I Was Scared’

Asked on the tape by Fountain why she did not come forward sooner, the woman said, “I was scared. I knew he (Botting) was innocent and I thought he’d be off. But with a second trial, I knew they’d find him guilty.” The woman added that she felt “terrible” guilt.

Although such last-minute, third-party murder confessions are common fodder for television courthouse dramas, they are rare in real life. Fountain, who has practiced law for 21 years, said this is the first one he has seen.

Fountain said he withheld the confession from the prosecution because he wanted to have a jury impaneled first, which he said would force the authorities to resolve the case quickly.

Thor was found dead the morning of July 8, 1984, in the Del Vina Street house he shared with Botting and Dennis. Dennis, a petite woman of 58 with graying hair and a heavily lined face, cared for the ailing man, who had terminal cancer, diabetes and other illnesses. In the taped interview, the woman said she did not know Thor was dead until she tried to wake him about 9:30 a.m. She said she summoned her son and he told her to call police and paramedics.

Thor’s death initially was thought to be the result of a heart attack, but a former part-time coroner working as an embalmer at the mortuary recognized strangulation marks around Thor’s neck and notified authorities, Green said. Botting was arrested later that month.

Allegedly Wrote Will

Green said in his opening statement that Botting used a rope to strangle Thor to benefit from a will that Botting allegedly wrote making himself the beneficiary of most of Thor’s estate. The estate consisted primarily of Thor’s house. In addition to murder, Botting has been charged with forgery and attempted grand theft.

Botting, who is divorced, earned a bachelor’s degree from USC and later did graduate work in finance at California State University, Los Angeles, Fountain said. Both Fountain and Green said that Botting has no felony record.

Botting’s sister described him as a bright, easygoing person. She said he had been living at Thor’s house while their mother cared for Thor, a widower who had been married to the sister of Dennis’ former husband. Edwards, who lives in San Diego, described her mother and Thor as drinking companions.

Botting’s first trial ended with the jury deadlocked at 11 to 1 for conviction on the murder charge and 10 to 2 for conviction on the other charges, Fountain said.