Holdout Juror Prevents Imposition of Death Penalty : Killer Gets Life Imprisonment Without Parole

A San Fernando Superior Court jury decided Wednesday that a man who admitted he shot a woman twice in the head at Hansen Dam two years ago because he “didn’t want her saying anything” after he kidnaped and raped her should be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

The prosecution had asked for the death penalty for Steven Harold Erickson, 32, who was living in Sherman Oaks at the time he killed 26-year-old Victoria Winchester of Venice.

Erickson will appear before Judge Howard J. Schwab for formal sentencing May 29.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael E. Knight, called the jury’s verdict “a tragedy,” saying, “I’m sorry that this system is so imperfect that things like this can happen. I don’t think the people of the state of California got a fair trial.”

Erickson had already been found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and rape in the death of Winchester, who was killed on Feb. 5, 1984. The death-penalty phase of the trial started March 30, and the jurors deliberated for 10 days.

Finding on Circumstances

The jury determined that Erickson had committed the murder under special circumstances, as required by law to impose the death penalty, because the killing happened during a kidnapping and rape, and because Erickson had killed Winchester to keep her from testifying against him.

Thus, defense attorney Gerald Chaleff had expected the jury to recommend the death penalty, he said, and was “stunned but happy” with the verdict.

“We feel the jury did the right thing,” he said. Erickson also seemed relieved by the verdict, Chaleff said. “He was stunned, because we had told him it might go the opposite way,” Chaleff said.

Knight said that during deliberations, a female juror attempted to contact Chaleff’s co-counsel, Gigi Gordon, with a question about a point of law in the trial. Knight said he did not know whether the juror spoke to Gordon. He later asked the judge to disqualify the juror, but the request was denied, he said.

‘Jury Was 11 to 1’

“The jury was 11 to 1 for the death penalty, but this one juror was holding out,” he said. The jurors compromised on a unanimous vote of life without parole, he said, rather than remain deadlocked and cause a mistrial, because “the whole case would have to be retried and all their work would have gone down the drain.”

On Feb. 4, 1984, Erickson and Winchester were introduced by a mutual friend and went to a Santa Monica nightclub. They returned to Erickson’s mother’s North Hollywood apartment early the next day, the prosecution said.

When Winchester asked to be taken home to Venice, Erickson refused and raped her, prosecutors said. She was also beaten after she attempted at one point to escape from the apartment through the bathroom window.

Then Erickson drove Winchester in a pickup truck to Hansen Dam, and “executed her” after she threatened to go to police, Knight said.

According to court records, Erickson had a record of felony convictions including attempted kidnapping, grand theft, burglary, forgery of a prescription and receiving stolen property.