Hearing Postponed on Kraft Case Delay : Despite Objections of Prosecutors, Judge Cardenas Will Preside

Lawyers for Randy Steven Kraft, accused of 16 Orange County murders, have asked to postpone his Jan. 12, 1987, trial date for at least six months. But the hearing to decide whether to grant the delay was itself postponed Wednesday to just five days before the trial date.

Over the objections of prosecutors, the postponement request will be heard by Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas, the same judge who granted an eight-month delay of the Kraft trial last May, three years after the Long Beach computer consultant’s arrest in the case.

Prosecutors and Kraft’s lawyers have been arguing for two days--not about the postponement itself, but over which judge would decide the issue.

The district attorney’s office wanted the matter heard by Superior Court Judge James K. Turner, who will preside over the trial.

But defense lawyers wanted it heard by Cardenas, who is assigned to oversee and approve defense costs in the case. Those costs, which prosecutors earlier this year estimated had reached $2 million, have been kept secret from the public, and from the district attorney’s office, by an order issued by Cardenas.

Prosecutors argued that the trial judge should make the decision. Defense lawyers argued that Cardenas was the proper person, partly because he was aware of some private issues that may be involved in the reasons given by defense lawyers for needing a postponement.

Turner decided Monday that “out of an abundance of caution,” Cardenas should hear it. Cardenas then denied a request by prosecutors that he disqualify himself. But because of scheduling conflicts, Cardenas will not be able to hear the motion before the holidays.

Wednesday’s decision to delay the matter further means that Kraft will be in two different courtrooms in different cities that week. Turner is scheduled to begin hearing pretrial motions in the Kraft case on Jan. 5 in Santa Ana. The postponement motion in Cardenas’ courtroom in Westminster is two days later.

Kraft’s lawyers contend that there is still too much defense preparation needed to go to trial and that their independent laboratory analysis of some of the evidence could take at least six more months.

Kraft, 41, was arrested May 14, 1983, when a dead U.S. Marine was found in his car during a routine traffic stop on the San Diego Freeway in Mission Viejo. He is charged with 16 murders, but prosecutors have formally accused him of another 21 murders dating back to the early 1970s for purposes of a possible penalty phase of the trial.

All 37 victims were young men, many of whom were emasculated or sexually assaulted, according to the prosecution.