Supervisors OK 7 New D.A. Aides for Kraft Case

After complaining about the state Supreme Court and the fees of defense lawyers, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday reluctantly approved hiring seven new aides for the district attorney to help prosecute the complex case of alleged serial murderer Randy Kraft.

Kraft, 41, a Long Beach computer consultant, is charged with 16 murders, but prosecutors have accused him of 22 more. All 38 victims were young men, many of whom were either sexually assaulted or emasculated. The defense costs are being paid by the county and state.

“The cost of prosecuting and defending these capital murder cases is getting way out of line,” Supervisor Harriett Wieder said before voting to approve $331,687 for the seven new positions plus an additional post for the Harbor Municipal Court.

Costs ‘Out of Hand’

“I have a difficult time understanding why we are pursuing 16 murder counts against Randy Kraft, when we could simply be pursuing the strongest three or four cases against him,” Wieder said. “The more murder charges, the more the defense costs.”

In requesting more manpower, Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks told supervisors that Kraft is linked to 64 murders in all, but the defense is expected to object to any attempt to tie him to more than 38.

Papers on the Kraft case filed with the supervisors by Hicks and Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James Enright estimated that defense costs, paid for by the county and the state, have run to $2 million so far. The defense team includes four lawyers and six other assistants.

Although counties can be reimbursed under state laws for prosecution expenditures, Enright said, those laws apply mostly to smaller counties, and Orange County is unlikely to get any of those state funds.

He added that the district attorney’s office had seven people working on the case “off and on” but was “falling behind in this investigation, while the defense has this unlimited budget to go against us.”

‘Difficult Position’

Responding to Wieder’s complaint about prosecuting too many murder counts, he said, “We find ourselves in a difficult position, telling the mother or the parent or the relative” of a murder victim that the accused killer is not being prosecuted for the crime because he is already being charged with other murders.

In addition, Enright said failure to prosecute all the alleged crimes could weaken the state’s case and raise the possibility that if Kraft is convicted, the verdict could be overturned on appeal.

Wieder also criticized Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and other state Supreme Court justices because the court “routinely overturns those (death penalty) convictions.” No one has died in the state’s gas chamber at San Quentin since 1967.

Enright, however, said, “I believe in this state there will be executions, and if there are, Randy Kraft is a perfect one to be executed.”

Arrested in 1983

Kraft was arrested on May 14, 1983, on Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo after two Highway Patrol officers noticed that he was driving his car erratically, according to reports. A Marine, Terry Lee Gambrel of Crothersville, Ind., was found either dead or dying in the front passenger seat of Kraft’s car, police said.

After examining evidence in Kraft’s car, Orange County authorities reopened several old murder cases in which no suspects had been arrested, and within a year Kraft was charged with 16 murders.

In a report on the Kraft prosecution, Hicks said the case is “without precedent in the county’s history” because of the large number of victims. It has required officials to interview more than 700 witnesses, process more than 100,000 documents and organize about 250 exhibits.

Adding seven positions, plus an eighth to handle the expansion of Harbor Municipal Court, will cost the county $331,687 per year, Hicks said. However, the funds for seven new staff members--who will cover for the people working on the Kraft case--will be needed only while the case lasts. Hicks estimated it would take another 18 to 30 months to finish the case.

‘Creating New Wealth’

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton told Enright that “through county money we’re creating new wealth out there on the part of defense attorneys.”

Unless court procedures could be changed to pay attorneys a flat fee per case, rather than paying by the hour, “there is a built-in incentive to elongate these cases until (defense attorneys’) retirement,” he said.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley grumbled that law schools should preach the need for swifter justice, noting, “We had this once, particularly in the West.”

Enright said the next hearing in the Kraft case is scheduled for April 25, and the trial could start in June, though defense lawyers have requested a delay.

Kraft’s attorneys have refused to say how much they are spending on his defense, and Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas sealed the defense’s legal bills on the grounds that news about them might prejudice potential jurors.

Cardenas said Tuesday that state funds “pay the bulk” of the defense costs. Last week he said the case would be “very expensive. We’re talking about a case that is unprecedented in this county.”

Targeted for Death

Enright also told the supervisors that Kraft was targeted for death by two other inmates “some time ago,” but Orange County Jail deputies managed to foil the plot.

He said that when he told one of Kraft’s lawyers about the threat, “I could tell he was worried.”

Wieder added that defense lawyers were worried about the threat to Kraft because “they didn’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

When these comments were relayed to Thomas McDonald, one of Kraft’s attorneys, the lawyer characterized them as “irresponsible statements made by people who really should know better.”

“Any citizen has to recognize that every individual is presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proven,” McDonald said. “What Mr. Enright has done is make public statements trying and convicting Mr. Kraft in the press.

“We’ve got politicians applauding and endorsing Mr. Enright’s comments. They may well have created such an atmosphere that Mr. Kraft cannot receive a fair trial in Orange County. If that’s the case, then what that has done has been to cost the taxpayer more with regard to a change of venue.”