Alcala’s Dismissal Plea Is Rejected in Penalty Trial Phase

An Orange County Superior Court judge on Monday rejected convicted killer Rodney Alcala’s request to have the case against him dismissed because of an inadequate defense, a move that one prosecutor alleged was a ploy by Alcala to stay off Death Row for as long as possible.

Judge Donald A. McCartin rejected Alcala’s request after the defendant told the court that he had severed his relationship that morning with defense attorneys John Patrick Dolan and Keith Monroe and would not cooperate with them in the future.

Prosecutor Tom Goethals, in a subsequent interview, said he believed that Alcala’s refusal to cooperate with defense attorneys was a legal ploy that would enable him appeal that specific issue to a higher court.

Penalty Phase Continues

After McCartin’s ruling, the penalty phase continued in Alcala’s trial for first-degree murder with special circumstances in the kidnaping and murder of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe.

Alcala could receive the death penalty or life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Jurors who will determine Alcala’s sentence heard Monday how two other young girls were victimized by Alcala in his prior convictions. In one case, a young girl was molested, and in another a teen-age girl was raped and beaten.

One of the victims, who was 8 years old at the time of the 1968 incident, said that she was on her way to school on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood when a man driving a car started following her. Under questioning by Goethals, she told the court: “My parents told me not to talk to strangers. But the man said, ‘Oh, I know your parents,’ ” the victim said.

The young girl said she was taken against her will and was later found inside a nearby residence nude and unconscious from a severe beating with a pipe. Alcala was identified in court as the man who picked her up and who was seen inside the residence.

Jurors also heard from the father of a 15-year-old Riverside girl who related that Alcala had seized his daughter, tied her with rope and gagged her with a T-shirt before raping her. Alcala was sentenced to nine years in prison for rape and assault.

First Found Guilty in 1980

Alcala was first found guilty of the Samsoe murder in 1980 and sentenced to die. But two years ago, the state Supreme Court overturned the sentence, ruling that the prosecution could not use key evidence about Alcala’s criminal past in a trial to determine his guilt or innocence.

The court ruled that such information had an “inflammatory impact” on the original 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.

After Alcala was convicted a second time last month, Goethals said Alcala’s prior convictions would be the “first thing” jurors would hear in the penalty phase of his trial.

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

Before the trial’s penalty phase began, Alcala spent the morning in court, without the jury present, reading from a 49-page document that he had drafted to support his claim that attorneys Dolan and Monroe were “unprepared and unwilling” to provide him with a good defense.

“The gulf between Mister Dolan and Monroe and myself has become insurmountable. I ask that a mistrial be declared,” Alcala said.

Attorneys Reinstated

After denying the request, McCartin reinstated both attorneys, despite Alcala’s statements in court that he would not cooperate with his attorneys in the future.

“The question is whether these two lawyers can give you an adequate, meritorious defense. My observation is a resounding ‘yes’ to the effectiveness of counsel,” the judge said.

“To relieve them at this time would be an error.”