Prosecutor Adds Twist in Murder Case Trial

Peter Krizek was tried four times in the 1980 murder of his lover and another man, who were shot to death and then dismembered with a band saw. Three trials ended in hung juries, and his one conviction was reversed on appeal.

Krizek, who walked out of Los Angeles Superior Court a free man in 1985, was back in court Monday--this time as a witness in the dismemberment-murder trial of Max Bernard Franc, 58, a former Cal State Fresno professor.

Krizek denied that he is Terry Adams, the man who Franc claims is responsible for fatally shooting Tracy Leroy Nute, 18, a West Hollywood prostitute, last August and dismembering his body with a chain saw. The witness also said he did not know either Franc or Nute.

Nute’s head and torso were found on a country road near Fresno. His limbs were found two days later near a Golden State Freeway on-ramp in Valencia. Franc was arrested after pieces of flesh and blood were found in the teeth of a chain saw he had rented.

Although the Adams-Krizek link has been raised by the defense, Krizek, a 30-year-old carpenter, was called to the stand as a preemptive measure by Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris. The prosecutor has characterized the Krizek-Adams theory as “a straw-man defense.”

Franc’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Mark Kaiserman, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John H. Reid outside the presence of the jury that he believes there are “many similarities” between the crimes Krizek was charged with and the murder that Franc is being tried for.

Shot in Head

Both Krizek and Franc were said to have had homosexual relationships with their alleged victims, Kaiserman said. In the cases against both men, the victims were shot in the head and torso and dismembered at the waist, and a knife and a power saw were used to cut up the bodies.

But despite complaints from Kaiserman that he had a right to try to impeach the witness, Judge Reid refused to allow him to question Krizek at this point about the 1980 murders of Melvin Douglas Amodeo, 45, and John Lochetto, 39. The defense may be allowed to recall Krizek later in the trial, which is now in its third week.

Krizek’s attorney, Charles Theodore Mathews, said his client would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent if he is asked about the murders because he could conceivably be tried again for them.

“Mr. Krizek has found it very difficult to put that nightmare behind him,” Mathews said in court.

In an earlier telephone interview, Mathews said: “To me it’s just a sin against justice . . . that (Krizek) continues to be plagued like this.”

His client has no more connection to the Franc case than “the man in the moon,” Mathews said.

Ironically, the first person to suggest that Krizek might be Terry Adams was Deputy Dist. Atty. James W. Grodin, who unsuccessfully prosecuted Krizek in the double-murder.

As a result, Sheriff’s Sgt. Stan White took a 1980 photo of Krizek to West Hollywood. White testified in pretrial proceedings that “between 10 and 20” people either identified the photograph as someone they knew as Terry Adams or said they thought Krizek could be Adams.

White, however, dismissed the identifications, characterizing the people he interviewed as “street people, transients and prostitutes.”

“They’ll identify any picture I show them as anything I want them to,” White said in an interview. “They are totally untrustworthy.”

White also pointed out that Krizek has gained a substantial amount of weight since the photo was taken.

Last week, a 15-year-old Omaha girl who lived in Los Angeles last year as a runaway was called out-of-turn by the defense to strengthen its theory that there is a Terry Adams and that he knew Nute, Franc’s alleged victim.

Barbara Douglas testified that Nute had been “like a big brother” to her when she arrived in Los Angeles and had once introduced her to Adams.

“Tracy wanted me to stay away from him because he was trouble,” Douglas told the jury. Shown the earlier photo of Krizek, Douglas said it “looked like” Adams. But she did not identify the more recent Krizek picture as Adams.