Man Guilty of Murdering Woman, 19

A paroled rapist was convicted of first-degree murder Friday in the death of a 19-year-old Huntington Beach woman and now faces possible death sentences in both Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Martin Kipp, 30, had turned himself in for a parole violation in January, 1984, while police authorities in both counties were investigating the slayings of two 19-year-old women who had been sexually assaulted.

His Orange County attorney, Michael A. Horan, said he believes that Kipp’s surrender may help him avoid a death sentence.

“I think he knew he had to be stopped,” Horan said. “The cocaine and everything else was just getting to him.”

Kipp could become only the second man on San Quentin’s death row to receive death sentences from both Los Angeles and Orange counties. The first was William G. Bonin, sentenced to death for 10 murders in Los Angeles County and four others in Orange County in 1983 and 1984.

Kipp was convicted Friday of strangling Antoya Howard on Dec. 30, 1983. Her body was found in her car in an alley in Huntington Beach five days later. Jurors also found that the murder had occurred during an attempted rape, which means that Kipp faces a sentence of life without parole or death. Jurors will make that decision when Kipp’s penalty hearing begins Wednesday.

Kipp is also charged with the Sept. 17, 1983, murder and rape of 19-year-old Tiffany Frizzell in Long Beach. Frizzell, from Puget Sound, Wash., had just arrived in Long Beach that day and had called her parents to tell them the motel where she was staying. She was found strangled and beaten to death. Kipp is scheduled to be tried in Long Beach.

Argued Similarity

Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin L. Jensen successfully argued to Judge Donald A. McCartin that the slayings were similar enough in method and close enough in time that the Long Beach case should be considered as evidence in the Orange County case.

Horan said he will present Kipp’s life story to jurors deciding his fate. He was raised by stepparents on a Blackfoot Indian reservation in Montana after he had been abandoned by his mother, Horan said.

“His victims are all women, and I think there’s a definite connection,” Horan said.

Kipp went into the Marine Corps, primarily to please his stepfather, Horan said. It was while he was in the Marines that he was found guilty of rape and served three years in prison.

Jurors also will hear about Linda Ann Kipp, a law clerk who met and married Kipp two years ago when he was in jail. On April 18, 1987, she was arrested on suspicion of helping Kipp plan an escape from County Jail. Both Kipps and Linda Kipp’s 16-year-old son are awaiting trial on escape charges.