Lesser Count in Killing Ends Case in 4th Trial

Waiving his right to a jury in his fourth murder trial, a Granada Hills man Monday agreed to be convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal 1984 shooting of his former girlfriend’s date.

The man, Charles Ruben Stevens, 36, was convicted of the lesser charge by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew.

The trial was a formality, known as a “trial bargain,” because Lew told the defense and prosecution ahead of time that Stevens would be found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced April 10 to five years in prison.

The only evidence presented Monday consisted of transcripts from Stevens’ three previous trials and other court proceedings.

Stevens was accused of ambushing Evans Lee Crawford, 29, outside Crawford’s Granada Hills home in December, 1984, in a fit of jealousy.

The earlier murder trials ended in hung juries, the first two with the juries voting 10 to 2 and 8 to 4 for conviction and the third, which concluded Oct. 14, with the jury voting 9 to 3 for acquittal.

Stevens could have faced up to 27 years to life in prison if convicted of murder. Because of time already spent in County Jail, Stevens could be released within about 20 months, according to his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Paul Enright.

“There is no doubt in my mind that you were the perpetrator of the crime,” Lew told Stevens. But Lew said he convicted Stevens of manslaughter because of a reasonable doubt that Stevens committed first-degree or second-degree murder, crimes involving greater levels of intent to kill.

At the first trial, Stevens “came two votes from spending the rest of his life in the joint,” Enright said, whereas under the expected sentence, he could “be out in about a year and a half.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth A. Loveman said the verdict was reasonable considering the inability of three previous juries to reach a guilty verdict.