Second Youth Sentenced in 1985 Murder of Transient

A prep school student from Texas asked for forgiveness before a judge sentenced him to 15 years to life behind bars for the commando-style murder of a transient in a park gazebo nearly two years ago.

James (Rusty) Tramel, 19, of Victoria, Tex., should be sent to the California Youth Authority until he is 25, then serve the rest of his term in state prison, Superior Court Judge Bruce Dodds ruled Thursday. Tramel could be eligible for parole in 1995.

Tramel and classmate David Kurtzman, 19, from the Northwestern Preparatory School in Santa Barbara, were convicted last year of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Michael Stephenson, 29, in Alameda Park on Aug. 4, 1985.

“I accept responsibility for my involvement in this case, for the things leading up to the death of Michael Stephenson, and many of the things that happened afterwards,” Tramel told Dodds before the sentencing.

“It was my irresponsibility, self-centeredness and insecurity that played a great part in how I handled things,” he said. “It was never my intention at any time for anyone to be hurt or killed. Nonetheless, the things that I did led up to that.”

The sentence came despite CYA recommendations that Tramel go straight to prison after a hacksaw blade was found in his cell in Norwalk earlier this year.

Kurtzman was sentenced to 16 years to life last year, but a jury initially deadlocked on the case against Tramel. He was retried and convicted last December.

The youths, who had hoped to gain admittance to U.S. military academies, said they dressed in dark clothing and embarked on a sortie in search of gang members who had harassed their classmates. They found Stephenson in a sleeping bag, and Kurtzman slashed the man’s throat commando-style and stabbed him 17 times with a Marine Corps K-bar knife.