Prosecutor Denounces ‘Vigilantism’ : Jury Gets Wisecarver Murder Case

Denouncing the slaying of a rape suspect as “an act of vigilantism,” a prosecutor Friday urged jurors to reinforce the notion that “we are a society of laws” and convict the killer of first-degree murder.

“This isn’t a movie,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert L. Cohen told the Van Nuys Superior Court jury. “It’s not ‘Rambo’ or Charles Bronson in ‘Death Wish.’ This is real.”

The jury will begin deliberating Tuesday to determine what crime, if any, Raymond Wisecarver, 44, of Panorama City, committed when he used a shotgun July 10 to kill a man he believed had raped his stepdaughter.

A Man Who ‘Short-Circuited’

Deputy Public Defender Mark Lessem described his client as a man who “short-circuited” because of mounting frustration over his inability to “make things better” for the distraught 15-year-old girl.

“Everything just went haywire. Everything just exploded,” Lessem said.

The defense attorney argued that the killing of Edward Shreckengaust, 23, a nightclub bouncer from Reseda, amounted to no more than a “heat of passion” manslaughter, not premeditated first-degree murder.

Lessem cited testimony from a psychiatrist who concluded that Wisecarver’s brain has been damaged from years of alcohol abuse and that he cannot control his impulses.

“The element of malice is missing,” Lessem said of the murder charge.

According to testimony during the seven-day trial, Wisecarver’s stepdaughter reported to police that Shreckengaust, whom she knew through a friend, had raped her July 8 in his apartment.

Cocaine Use Alleged

Police said they interviewed Shreckengaust and learned that, before the alleged rape, the two had used cocaine, which the girl had not mentioned to officers. Police decided not to arrest him until they could investigate further.

Although Wisecarver did not testify during his trial, a friend told the jury that the defendant told her he had “taken care” of Shreckengaust after learning that police released him.

According to the friend, Wisecarver, an apartment house manager, said he borrowed a shotgun from a neighbor and went to the suspect’s home, posed as a magazine salesman and shot Shreckengaust through the screen door.

Prosecutor Cohen criticized Wisecarver for taking the law into his own hands and said Shreckengaust will never have a trial on the rape allegation.

“He didn’t get a jury of 12 people to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Cohen said. “He didn’t get that opportunity because Mr. Wisecarver chose to act consciously as his judge, jury and executioner.”