Retrial Starts of Man Convicted Once of Locking Son in Suitcase, Killing Him

Jury selection is under way this week in Pasadena in the retrial of a Burbank man who was convicted almost three years ago of killing his 4-year-old son by locking him in a suitcase.

Michael Francis Corrigan, 35, was sentenced in early 1984 to 15 years to life for second-degree murder in the death of his son, James. But a state Supreme Court ruling six months after Corrigan was sentenced invalidated the conviction, Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry A. Green said.

The state court ruled in another case that a death resulting from child abuse cannot automatically be categorized as murder, Green said. The ruling was applied retroactively to Corrigan’s case because his conviction was already under appeal. Corrigan also was convicted of felony child endangering and intentional infliction of great bodily harm.

“The issue now is to show whether or not this is a homicide,” Green said. “We have to start all over again because we failed to apply a rule that was not in existence. The first time was a whodunit. Now we have to show it was a crime.”

Green is prosecuting Corrigan for the second time and said the retrial is a source of particular frustration for him.

First Trial Was ‘Perfect’

“We tried a perfect, error-free trial before,” Green said. “Corrigan had as fair a trial as you could get.”

The body of Corrigan’s son was discovered inside a 22-inch-long suitcase in the family’s Burbank apartment on April 30, 1982, two days after the father reported the boy missing.

Green had argued that Corrigan, a photoengraver, became angry with his son for waking him from a nap. The attorney argued that Corrigan struck and kicked the boy, then stuffed him into the suitcase and locked it to punish him. Investigators testified that Corrigan hid the suitcase during a search by police.

The coroner ruled that the boy died of suffocation, but also noted that he had bruises on his back and an injury to his spleen, which could have resulted from a blow to the stomach.

During the first trial, Green said his strongest evidence was a tape-recording of a jail-house interview in which Corrigan told investigators that he remembered striking and kicking his son.

However, Corrigan maintained during the trial that his daughter, Monica, who was then 15 months old, had accidentally locked her brother inside the suitcase during a game of hide-and-seek. Corrigan’s family, including his wife, Petranellea, said they believed him. They said police had brainwashed Corrigan into confessing.

Petranellea Corrigan, who now lives in North Dakota, may testify at the new trial, said Corrigan’s court-appointed attorney, Seymour Applebaum. The woman earlier had told The Times that she fled the state with her two surviving children because she was afraid Monica would be taken away by county child-welfare authorities.

Applebaum said Tuesday he already was at a disadvantage in the retrial. He said Pasadena Superior Court Judge Coleman A. Swart, who is overseeing the retrial, has informed attorneys that he will instruct the jury to consider as fact that Corrigan put his son into the suitcase.

“I would have handled the case a lot differently if the judge had not done that,” Applebaum said. “Mr. Corrigan has always denied killing his son and denies it to this day.”