The State - News from June 23, 1987

The state Court of Appeal upheld the arson and second-degree murder conviction of Alan Wayne Fredericksen, who in 1983 bludgeoned to death an 80-year-old woman, Audrey Evans of Bolinas, and set her body on fire. Fredericksen, a paranoid schizophrenic, pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. However, a jury found him sane and guilty and he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. On appeal, the defendant contended the jury was prejudiced because two jurors read a newspaper review of a book written by a prosecution expert witness. The theme of the book, and of his testimony, was that the testimony of mental health experts in such cases was inherently unreliable.