Kraft Lawyers May Seek Still Another Delay

The Randy Steven Kraft murder case--already postponed eight times at the defendant’s request--may be postponed several months beyond the current July 6 trial date, court proceedings indicated Friday.

During a court hearing, defense lawyers said they have not begun tests on out-of-state physical evidence in the case because of a legal dispute over the confidentiality of the test results.

Once the tests begin, they could “add considerably” to the time needed for trial preparation, according to one member of the defense team.

Kraft is charged with 16 murders in Orange County. But he is accused of 21 other murders by Orange County prosecutors, including six in Oregon and two in Michigan. Prosecutors have filed notice that they plan to use some or all of these 21 in an attempt to gain a murder conviction against Kraft on the other 16. They also plan to use them if the case reaches a death penalty phase.

On Friday, defense lawyers asked Superior Court Judge James K. Turner to throw out the six Oregon murders, claiming that Oregon officials won’t permit the defense confidentiality in testing physical evidence there. A similar hearing before Turner on the Michigan evidence is scheduled in two weeks.

Kraft was arrested May 14, 1983, when a dead Marine was found in his car during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 5 in the Mission Viejo area. Kraft, 42, a computer consultant from Long Beach, was on business in Oregon and Michigan at the time that those eight deaths occurred between 1980 and 1982.

Key to further delays in the Kraft case is the fact that the defense has not yet conducted any of its tests on the physical evidence in Oregon and Michigan. Their own criminalist, Robert Ogle, testified at an earlier hearing that testing in the California cases could take seven to 12 months and that the out-of-state testing “could add considerably to that amount of time.” Testing in the California cases began several weeks ago.

Defense lawyers say they must have guarantees of confidentiality before they can even begin testing of physical evidence in the other two states. Laws in those states differ from California, where defense lawyers are not required to turn over to prosecutors the results of any testing done.

Prosecutors argue that the Kraft lawyers ought to get their tests started in Oregon and Michigan, then come to Judge Turner if a problem arises.

But Kraft attorney William J. Kopeny said that was unacceptable.

“The prosecution is trying to put Mr. Kraft to death on evidence that we can’t (properly) prepare against,” Kopeny told the court.

Kopeny and co-counsel C. Thomas McDonald refused to tell The Times Friday that the out-of-state tests would mean another trial delay.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. James P. Cloninger, one of the prosecutors, said that “it would certainly seem that we can expect them to ask for another delay.”

The district attorney’s office has vigorously opposed the last two defense requests for trial delays. Cloninger said prosecutors can be expected to oppose any delay of the July 6 trial date, too.

But so far the defense has had no problem in winning delays. Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas, who has heard the last two motions for trial delays, said at the last hearing in January that he has no choice but to accept the defense lawyers’ statements if they say they are not ready.

If Turner grants defense motions to eliminate the eight Oregon and Michigan cases, of course, that would shorten the amount of work for the defense, Kopeny said. But defense lawyers say that even if Turner dismisses the out-of-state cases, it doesn’t guarantee that they can be ready by July 6.

“We’re certainly working diligently with that date in mind,” McDonald said.

Turner has taken the issue under submission and is expected to rule next week.

Numerous other issues have to be settled before the trial. Turner has set aside three weeks for hearings on the defense claims that search warrants that produced most of the evidence against Kraft were illegal.

Following that hearing, Turner is expected to hear the major pretrial issue: whether Kraft will receive one trial, which prosecutors want, or as many as 16 separate trials, which the defense is expected to seek.