Calabasas Man Loses Bid for New Trial in ’85 Slaying

A state appellate court Thursday turned down a request for a new trial from a Calabasas man convicted of second-degree murder for killing a classmate in high school who exposed him as a homosexual.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld Robert M. Rosenkrantz’s conviction in the June, 1985, shooting death of Steven Redman, 17, of Calabasas.

Dennis A. Fischer, who represented Rosenkrantz before the panel in oral arguments Tuesday, said he will appeal the case to the California Supreme Court.

Fischer had asked the court to reduce Rosenkrantz’s June, 1986, conviction to manslaughter, contending that Van Nuys Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht failed to adequately explain to the jury the legal difference between manslaughter and murder.

Fischer further contended that the judge should have asked the jury to consider whether Rosenkrantz was acting in a “diminished mental state” when he killed Redman. Such a finding would have reduced Rosenkrantz’s culpability.

Punishment Excessive

Fischer also claimed that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction and that the punishment against Rosenkrantz is excessive.

But the appellate court, in an opinion written by Justice L. Thaxton Hanson, agreed with Deputy Atty. Gen. David F. Glassman that there are no legal grounds to reverse the conviction.

The judge’s instructions to the jury were adequate, the punishment is fair and Rosenkrantz’s own defense attorney specifically requested that the jury not be instructed to consider evidence that Rosenkrantz was in a diminished mental state, Glassman said.

Instead, Richard Plotin, the original defense attorney, presented evidence that Rosenkrantz was in a state of emotional turmoil and killed Redman in the heat of passion. Noting that Rosenkrantz had “deprived his young victim of the balance of his life,” the court concurred with Glassman that the punishment was not overly severe.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office had sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that Rosenkrantz carefully planned the “cold, calculated execution” of Redman. However, Rosenkrantz’s defense attorney argued that the killing was voluntary manslaughter, a killing provoked by “the heat of passion.” The attorney described Rosenkrantz as a nonviolent youth who was moved to violence by the revelation of his darkest secret.

The jury arrived at a verdict of second-degree murder.

Rosenkrantz, now 20, shot Redman 10 times with a Uzi carbine on a Calabasas street one week after Redman and his best friend, Rosenkrantz’s brother, Joey, then 16, followed him to a family vacation home and caught him with a male lover. The two youths then told Rosenkrantz’s parents that he was homosexual.

Rosenkrantz testified during the trial that he waited for four hours outside Redman’s condominium the morning of the killing with the intention of shooting Redman’s car. He said he shot Redman in anger after Redman had called him “a faggot.”

Rosenkrantz is serving a prison sentence of 17 years to life at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. He is eligible for parole after serving about nine years.