New Murder Trial Granted in Apartment Shooting

A Stanton man convicted of second-degree murder for shooting a woman through an apartment wall during an argument three years ago won a new trial Monday.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana said that Spencer C. Heckathorne, now 26, did not receive a fair trial because the judge permitted jurors to learn about the defendant’s previous conviction for assault with a deadly weapon.

Information about the previous conviction was prejudicial, said Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. “Much depended on the jury’s impression of Heckathorne as an individual who would or would not deliberately shoot a gun into a common apartment wall in conscious disregard of a neighbor’s life,” Crosby said.

He added that it gave the prosecution a chance to portray Heckathorne as “a hothead.”

Heckathorne was arrested on his birthday, Oct. 15, 1985, after a 27-year-old woman, Robin Ann Holding, was found fatally shot in an apartment adjoining Heckathorne’s. Evidence showed that a bullet had been fired from the Heckathorne apartment.

Three witnesses in Holding’s apartment testified at Heckathorne’s trial that Heckathorne and his wife had been arguing loudly. Holding and one of the witnesses were banging on the common apartment wall for quiet when she was fatally shot through the wall.

Heckathorne had said the gun discharged by accident when he was trying to unload it. He and his wife both denied that they were arguing as loudly as the neighbors had claimed.

Heckathorne’s attorney, Gary M. Pohlson, had asked for a mistrial after the jurors heard about Heckathorne’s previous arrest. But Superior Court Judge Jean H. Rheinheimer refused his request.

Justice Crosby said in his opinion Monday that Heckathorne may have been the type of person the prosecution portrayed him to be: “a bad dude,” “violent” and “macho.”

“But our system has long since determined that individuals are to be tried for their actions, not their characters,” Crosby said. He added that the evidence in the case “by no means compelled the verdict (of second-degree murder) returned by the jury.”

Heckathorne is in prison serving a sentence of 15 years to life.