Death-Penalty Retrial in Torture-Slaying of Amy Seitz Goes to Jury

Waving a pair of locking pliers that Theodore Frank used to torture a 2-year-old Ventura County girl before he killed her, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that Frank was “a sexual sadist” whose crime morally compels a death verdict.

Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Hutchins recounted in gruesome and emotional detail how Frank abducted Amy Sue Seitz from a relative’s Camarillo home nine years ago, forced her to drink beer, tortured her, raped her and then killed her.

“At some point she must have become terribly scared,” Hutchins said in his closing argument. “She was in terror and pain and alone.”

The Orange County Superior Court jury began deliberating late Tuesday on whether Frank should be sent to the gas chamber or given a sentence of life in prison without parole.

It is the second penalty trial for Frank, 51, who was convicted and given a death sentence more than seven years ago for the March 14, 1978, Seitz slaying. But in a highly controversial decision, the state Supreme Court two years ago ordered a new penalty trial, while upholding his conviction.

Diaries Illegally Seized

The justices ruled that Frank’s prison diaries, illegally obtained by police from his Woodland Hills apartment, had an important influence on jurors in the penalty phase of his first trial.

The Supreme Court’s decision was used in literature by forces opposing California Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird in her confirmation bid in the November election. Bird, who was ousted from the court along with Justices Cruz Reynoso and Joseph R. Grodin, was the only justice who voted to reverse both Frank’s death verdict and his conviction.

The case was sent back to Orange County, where the first trial had been held on a change of venue from Ventura County.

Frank, wearing a gray suit, leaned back in his chair and sat with his legs crossed throughout Hutchins’ closing argument. He watched Hutchins intently as the prosecutor described him as someone who “gets his excitement from inflicting pain” on young children.

Court records show that Frank has been a child molester most of his adult life. Hutchins brought in evidence of six other incidents of Frank’s molesting or assaulting children between the ages of 4 and 11. Four of the six testified in court, and the testimony of two others from Frank’s first trial was read to jurors.

Frank was convicted in three of the cases. Two others were dismissed in a plea-bargain, and the sixth was not pursued by authorities in Missouri, where the incident took place.

Tears From Victim’s Mother

The mother of one of the six sat in court Tuesday and listened quietly. But when Hutchins began describing what happened to her daughter--Frank admitted torturing her and sexually assaulting her--the woman could not hold back her tears.

“It’s appropriate to reflect on the suffering he caused,” Hutchins said, as he described all six incidents in detail.

Frank’s attorney, Willard P. Wiksell of Ventura, did not attempt to deny Frank’s record as a child molester. Nor did he deny the Seitz killing.

Rather, Wiksell pointed to Frank’s history of mental illness. He was in Atascadero State Hospital between 1974 and 1978 and was released six weeks before the Seitz killing.

Frank, he said, “is a kind, good, talented, loving person--who cannot control his behavior.”

Wiksell said he was not trying to minimize what happened to Amy Sue Seitz.

“She died a brutal death,” Wiksell said. “But we don’t kill a man who can’t control his behavior.”

Wiksell also argued that life without parole was a harsh punishment and that jurors should not feel like they were letting Frank get away with anything by not imposing the death penalty.

“Twenty years from now, if he’s still alive, Theodore Frank will still be in jail,” Wiksell said. “If he doesn’t get killed by another inmate, he will die in prison.”

Jurors deliberated for about an hour before Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan sent them home for the night. Their deliberations were to continue today.