Kraft Defense to Ask Trial Delay to ’88

Six months ago, defense attorneys and prosecutors in the Randy Steven Kraft serial-murder case met in the courtroom of Orange County Superior Court Judge James K. Turner to argue about which judge should preside at a hearing on Kraft’s request for a trial postponement.

The defense lawyers got the judge they wanted, and the trial was postponed until July 6.

Today the attorneys will go back to Turner for the same argument, with the defense lawyers saying now that they will not be ready for trial until next year.

It’s likely to be a heated debate. Deputy Dist. Atty. James P. Cloninger, in recent court papers, has accused Kraft’s attorneys of deliberately stalling. Granting another postponement, he said, would be “a blatant abuse” of the system.

But defense attorneys said another postponement is essential, “given the extraordinary nature” of the Kraft case.

Kraft, 42, was arrested on May 14, 1983, when police officers who pulled him over for a traffic violation on the San Diego Freeway in Mission Viejo found a body in his car. He has since been charged with 16 murders, and prosecutors allege he killed at least 21 other young men. They say they will introduce evidence to prove the additional murders during the penalty phase of Kraft’s trial.

Kraft’s attorneys have been granted eight postponements. At the last two postponement hearings, before Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas, the judge said he had no choice but to give Kraft’s lawyers as much time as they believed they needed.

The defense attorneys want to go back to Cardenas for the new hearing on a trial postponement. Prosecutors want to keep the hearing before Turner, who will be the trial judge.

Cardenas has been assigned to monitor and approve defense spending on the Kraft case.

“We would hope to get a fair hearing no matter which judge this goes before,” Cloninger said.

If the hearing does go to Cardenas, however, the prosecution is expected to ask him to disqualify himself because of his defense monitoring duties.

Defense attorney James G. Merwin said the defense isn’t ready because of the complexity of the case and number of items of physical evidence to be analyzed.