Kraft Lawyers Must Be Given Strangulation Data

The judge in the Randy Steven Kraft trial Friday ordered Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates to turn over to defense lawyers all of his reports between 1983 and the present on young men who died in the county from strangulation and who had either drugs or alcohol in their system.

And he gave the sheriff and his staff a week to do it.

Kraft’s attorneys hope to glean from that information whether any of these deaths--which would have occurred after Kraft was arrested and in custody--were similar to the murders of which he is accused.

Kraft, 43, is on trial in Superior Court in Santa Ana on charges of murdering 16 young men in the county. His trial, which could include up to 45 murders if it reaches a penalty phase, is considered by many legal experts to already be the most expensive in the county’s history, if not in all of California.

Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran, representing the sheriff, objected Friday to the defense request that the coroner’s office produce the files on the post-1982 deaths.

But Judge Donald A. McCartin smiled and told him before Friday’s hearing even began that he wasn’t going to win his argument.

“This being a capital case, I’m not going to prejudice these gentlemen (for the defense) by depriving them of any items they might need to defend their client,” McCartin said.

Duran argued it would probably require that coroner’s officials pore over about 30,000 death certificates just to find a few which might be in that category.

Put extra people to work on it then, the judge suggested.

“The way the Board of Supervisors feels about funding right now, I don’t know,” Duran said with a quick laugh.

The judge smiled in response and said, “Well, tell them I’ll go to the Board of Supervisors; there won’t be a problem.”

McCartin asked Duran to have all the files for the defense by next Friday, but added: “I’m not going to put anybody in jail over it. If you can’t get it all done, let me know.”

The defense request is for all homicide records of males between the ages of 18 and 35 who died either from strangulation or died with ligature marks on their necks. That group is to be further narrowed down by singling out those with either alcohol or drugs in their system.

What if it is just aspirin, Duran asked?

“Put them in there,” the judge said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown asked whether the order should include someone who may have died inside a house. The victims that Kraft is alleged to have killed were almost all found along roadsides or in remote areas.

The judge ordered that those be given to the Kraft lawyers too.

The Friday hearing was outside the presence of the jury, which is scheduled to return on Monday. Kraft’s attorneys will then begin the second week of the defense portion of the trial.