Man Accused of Asking Ex-Football Pro to Kill Is Innocent, Jury Rules

A Beverly Hills man was found not guilty Friday of soliciting former professional football star Ernie Holmes to murder wealthy Los Angeles businessman George Patarias Huck.

“It was the right verdict; the case was a bunch of baloney,” said a smiling Donald Kreiss, 35, outside the courtroom minutes after the jury’s verdict was read.

Kreiss, a former boyfriend of Huck’s widow, Sana, was charged with having asked Holmes to kill Huck on three occasions in 1983. But he was not charged with the actual killing of Huck, 46, who was shot to death in front of his Mt. Olympus home in August, 1984.

Not Ruled Out as Suspect

Despite the verdict, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris said Kreiss still has not been ruled out as a suspect in the murder of Huck, a Greek immigrant who earned millions in the textile business and by breeding Arabian horses.

Also still under investigation, Norris said, is Sana Huck, who was in the process of divorcing Huck at the time of the murder.

At issue in the three-week trial was the credibility of Holmes, who is not a suspect in the murder.

“The case is a very simple one,” said Norris in his closing statement. “It is believing Ernie Holmes.”

The massive one-time Pittsburgh Steeler defensive lineman testified that he met Kreiss through Kreiss’ long-time friend, Michael Trope, a sports agent whom Holmes was assisting in organizing a union for United States Football League players.

In one conversation, Holmes said, Kreiss asked him “to fix someone up.” At first, Holmes testified, he thought Kreiss had wanted him to introduce two people. But when he asked for elaboration, Holmes testified that Kreiss told him “he wanted somebody killed.”

‘Talking to the Wrong Person’

“I told him he was talking to the wrong person,” Holmes recalled.

Holmes said he did not take Kreiss’ statements seriously until he learned of Huck’s death. Then he approached authorities.

Jurors said after the verdict that they had doubts about Holmes’ testimony.

“He may have misconstrued or related it differently than it was said,” said jury foreman Jay Burciaga, 35, a banker.

Another juror, college student Randy Sermenu, termed Holmes’ account “incomplete.”

Howard R. Price, Kreiss’ attorney, said Holmes was “a nice gentleman but an unreliable witness.”

The defense attorney was less charitable, however, during the trial, when he asserted to Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige--without Holmes or the jury present--that “we’re here today because he (Holmes) is an idiot that made some stupid statements that aren’t true. . . . He is stupid; he is stupid. He has never said the same thing twice.”

Kreiss, who said that he works “in real estate,” did not escape criticism either. Several of his friends testified that Kreiss often exaggerated or made statements that he did not mean.

‘Talks Without Thinking’

“It’s pretty well known in the community that Don is a blowhard. He talks without thinking,” testified Dale S. Gribow, a former public defender. “He is a schnook at times, a jerk at times, a buffoon. But he’s honest, honorable, considerate and good-hearted.”

A previous trial for Kreiss ended in a mistrial last month when Holmes mistakenly violated a court order by testifying to the jury that Huck was killed. During the second trial, however, Hiroshige reluctantly allowed jurors to be informed that Huck was dead.

Price said he hoped the verdict will “put an end to the false suspicion against either Sana Huck or the defendant for the murder of George Huck when there obviously are other suspects.”

But a disappointed Norris later said, “We are continuing the investigation . . . (and) they have not been eliminated as suspects.”