Trial Heats Up as Kraft Lawyers Absorb Defeats

Lawyers in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial had their most heated battle to date Wednesday as the defense lost round after round with the judge.

Attorneys for the Long Beach computer consultant, who is charged with murdering 16 young men in Orange County, failed in efforts to present to the jury much of their evidence aimed at refuting two of the prosecution’s strongest cases against Kraft.

Those are the deaths of Geoffrey Alan Nelson, 18, and Rodger James DeVaul, 20, both of Buena Park, who were last seen together on the night of Feb. 11, 1983. Nelson’s body was found the next morning on the Euclid Street on-ramp to the Garden Grove Freeway. DeVaul’s body was found a day later in the Angeles National Forest north of Claremont.

Of the deaths in which Kraft is charged, these were the last two before Kraft was arrested on May 14, 1983, with the body of Terry Lee Gambrel, a 25-year-old El Toro Marine, in his car. Kraft’s lawyers, who earlier asked the judge to dismiss most of the charges against Kraft, have conceded that these three cases are the strongest for the prosecution.

In a Santa Ana courtroom Wednesday, the defense tried three times to introduce pieces of information they considered critical regarding those victims. And three times the judge overruled them out of the presence of the jury.

First, Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald elicited police testimony that Nelson’s picture had been shown at a gay bar in Garden Grove and that one patron, Francis Franco, claimed to recognize the photograph. McDonald asked whether Franco may have told the police that he had seen Nelson on the night he disappeared.

But before the officer could answer, Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown objected. Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin refused to allow the jury to hear statements made by Franco to the police. It was hearsay, McCartin decided.

If McDonald really wanted to introduce that information, McCartin asked him, “Why don’t you get Mr. Franco in here?” But the judge refused to let McDonald introduce the information through the Garden Grove police officer on the witness stand.

McDonald then tried to introduce evidence from DeVaul’s former roommate, Stan R. Goheen, who said he had heard someone threaten DeVaul. Again the judge said the witness was providing only unacceptable hearsay and would not let the jury hear it.

McDonald tried again with a new witness. Carol McKenzie, whose son and nephew both knew DeVaul, claimed that her nephew told her that the only thing he was free to tell her about DeVaul’s death was that “two guys were out to get him.”

Mistrial Asked, Denied

The judge again ruled that to be hearsay, irrelevant and inadmissible to jurors.

At one point, prosecutor Brown, with the jury present, asked the judge to admonish McDonald and even sanction him for repeatedly asking questions that the judge already had indicated that he would not allow during conferences at the bench.

McDonald immediately asked for a hearing outside the presence of jurors. Once they left, he asked the judge to declare a mistrial.

Brown’s remark about him in front of jurors, McDonald said, “has affected my ability and my credibility with the jury.”

Brown, in turn, accused McDonald of misconduct.

The judge rejected McDonald’s request and told them both: “Let’s move on to bigger and better things.”

McDonald had more success with his final witness of the day, Carol Lynn Brown Kelly, who testified that she had done computer work with Kraft.

Kelly produced documents to show that on Feb. 12, 1983, at 9 a.m.--just a few hours after Nelson’s body was dumped--Kraft was at work at the St. Ives Co., which is on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, 40 miles away from the dump site.

Kelly testified that Kraft did not appear disheveled and that she noticed nothing out of the ordinary about him. She also said she saw Kraft’s car in the parking lot when she went to lunch and saw nothing unusual about it. Prosecutors contend that Kraft emasculated Nelson in the front seat of the car before dumping his body.

Pictures From Home

Prosecutors, however, argue that the St. Ives work schedule is better evidence for them than for the defense. Here is why:

Found in Kraft’s home after his arrest was a set of negatives. The first few prints from them show some friends at a party with a Christmas tree in the background. Those are followed by a frame showing a young man in a car, whose face cannot be seen. Prosecutors contend on the basis of crime lab evidence that he is Eric Herbert Church, 21, whose body was found Jan. 27, 1983, off the San Gabriel Freeway in Seal Beach. The next seven frames picture DeVaul. Two depict a ligature mark on his neck, the others show him in various nude or semi-nude poses. Law enforcement authorities claim that DeVaul already was dead when all of the photographs were taken.

The next several frames, prosecutors contend, show the parking lot or nearby areas at St. Ives. Prosecutors contend that when Kraft arrived at work at St. Ives that morning, he took pictures of the parking area just so he could quickly finish up the roll.

Kraft, 43, who faces a possible death penalty if convicted, is accused by prosecutors of being one of the worst serial killers in the nation. If Kraft is convicted, Brown, at a separate penalty hearing, may include evidence of up to 29 other murders he claims Kraft committed.

Although lawyers in the Kraft case will return to court briefly on Friday for motions, testimony in the case will not resume until Monday.