Alcala Found Guilty at Retrial in Killing of 12-Year-Old Girl

Former Death Row inmate Rodney James Alcala, who was granted a new trial in a controversial state Supreme Court ruling, was again found guilty Wednesday by an Orange County jury of murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe of Huntington Beach.

The girl’s mother, Marianne Frazier, who was in court when the verdict was read, declared: “I just thank God. Maybe now my daughter can go to sleep for the first time in seven years. Maybe the rest of my family can go back to life.”

The verdict in Superior Court followed a four-week trial and four days of jury deliberation.

Alcala, 41, who is in custody in Orange County Jail, was ordered to return to court June 9, when the same jury must recommend the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Robin Samsoe was last seen about 3:15 p.m. on June 20, 1979, near the Huntington Beach Pier. She had spent the day in the area with a friend, Bridgett Wilvert, mostly in the Sunset Beach area, where, according to Bridgett, they were approached by a man who wanted to take their pictures.

After that, Bridgett said, she let Robin borrow her bicycle so she could hurry to her ballet class. She was not seen again alive.

Alcala, a Monterey Park part-time photographer, was arrested July 24, 1979, after police received information that Alcala matched a composite drawing based on a description by Bridgett. Alcala, who was under police surveillance, was arrested after he cut his hair and left the Southern California area, investigators said.

Physical evidence found in Alcala’s rented storage locker in Seattle showed that he had been taking pictures at Sunset Beach that day. Bridgett and a second witness, Jackye Young, identified Alcala as the man who took the pictures.

During Alcala’s first trial, a number of fellow inmates in the Orange County Jail testified that Alcala had made incriminating remarks to them about the Samsoe case.

However, in this trial, the prosecution used testimony only from Fred Williams, who told jurors that Alcala once had returned from court laughing after watching police demonstrate how Bridgett Wilvert’s bicycle could have been carried inside Alcala’s car.

According to Williams, Alcala said: “Those guys looked like a bunch of morons. I threw that (bicycle) in with no trouble at all.”

Williams said that another time, he and Alcala were looking at a picture of a woman in a sexually suggestive pose and that Alcala said: “She’s nothing like Robin was. (Robin) kicked and clawed like a wildcat.”

In his first trial, Alcala was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die. But two years ago, the state Supreme Court overturned the ruling, eliminating some key prosecution evidence, including information about Alcala’s criminal past.

Alcala, in separate earlier incidents, had picked up three young girls and held them against their will. In two cases, he had beaten them into unconsciousness. Alcala went to prison for the first incident, was returned to prison on a parole violation in the second incident and confessed the third to police after his arrest in the Samsoe case.

The Supreme Court ruled that the information about his past had an “inflammatory impact” on the jury and that there were not enough similarities between the earlier attacks and the Samsoe slaying to waive the general rule that prosecutors may not refer to a defendant’s criminal past.

The first prosecutor in the case, Richard Farnell, and others criticized the Supreme Court ruling and questioned whether the court would ever allow a death penalty ruling to stand.

After Wednesday’s verdict, Keith C. Monroe of Santa Ana, one of Alcala’s attorneys, said there is “overwhelming evidence” to appeal the conviction.

Monroe said an appeal would focus on key prosecution witness Dana Crappa, who was a U.S. Forest Service ranger in 1979. At Alcala’s first trial, Crappa testified that on the day Robin Samsoe was reported missing, she saw a blond girl and a man in the same mountain area where Robin’s body was later found. She gave a close description of Alcala’s car and said the man looked similar to Alcala, although she did not positively identify him.

But in the more recent trial, Crappa took the stand and testified that she couldn’t remember anything from June 20, 1979. At that point, the judge allowed the jury to hear a transcript of her earlier testimony.

“That decision was based only on the witness’s statements and those of her psychiatrist. We offered to have her tested by an independent psychiatrist, but that was denied by the judge,” Monroe said.

Alcala’s attorneys then contended that Crappa had been hypnotized after June 20, 1979, by a police interviewer who had made suggestions about details of the case. Her testimony at the first trial, they said, was a result of that hypnosis.

Hypnotism Ruled Out

But in a hearing outside the presence of the jury, Judge Donald A. McCartin had found that there was no evidence to conclude that Crappa had been hypnotized.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Goethals on Wednesday said: “We had lengthy pretrial hearings where police, investigators and even the prosecutor in the first trial denied that Dana Crappa was hypnotized.” Perhaps, he said, “the defense believes that these people lied under oath as part of a criminal conspiracy. But I don’t know what they believe. Both defense attorneys have said for some time that Alcala would never be found guilty.”

Robin’s mother said Wednesday that she had believed that the jury would return a guilty verdict but “I was also scared that they wouldn’t because of all the evidence the district attorney couldn’t use because of the Supreme Court.”

Frazier’s best friend, Donna Farley, who wrapped her arms around Frazier when the verdict was read, said that justice was served, “despite (Chief Justice) Rose Bird and the Supreme Court.”

Judge McCartin instructed jurors not to speak to members of the media until Alcala’s penalty phase is completed. The six-man, six-woman jury also found that special circumstances existed because Robin Samsoe was murdered during a kidnaping.