Kraft Defense Points to Victim’s Buddies : Bids to Introduce Doubt as to Cause of Death, Hints Cover-Up

Defense attorneys tried to show Thursday that one of the 16 men Randy Steven Kraft is charged with killing may have overdosed on drugs in the company of three Marine buddies who know more about the victim’s death than they are telling.

The body of Marine Robert Wyatt Loggins Jr., 19, was found in a trash bag in south Orange County 2 weeks after he disappeared on Aug. 20, 1980. The corpse’s neck, wrists and feet were bound with rope.

Pathologists have testified that Loggins may have died of a drug and alcohol overdose but that strangulation is a possibility.

Pictures of Loggins on a couch in Kraft’s Long Beach home were found both in Kraft’s car when he was arrested on May 14, 1983, and at his house in a later police search.

Either Dead or Drugged

Law enforcement officials say Loggins was either dead or drugged in most of those pictures. Many of them show him in nude or seminude poses with his eyes closed.

Kraft, 43, a Long Beach computer consultant, is on trial in Santa Ana on 16 murder charges. In court papers, however, prosecutors have accused him of 45 murders. The others include six in Oregon, two in Michigan, six others in Orange County, four in San Bernardino County, one in Imperial County, one in San Diego County, and the rest in Los Angeles County.

On Thursday, Kraft attorney James G. Merwin tried to focus the jury’s attention on what happened to Loggins on the night he disappeared. Two former Marines, James Maddux of Reno and Peter Rachaels, have testified that they and one other Marine went drinking with Loggins that night to celebrate Loggins’ first night off base since being restricted while undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse.

Broke Away From Comrades

Loggins broke away from the group near the Huntington Beach Pier, the two men have told the jury. Loggins wanted to spend the night on the beach, and the others wanted to return to Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, where they were stationed, they said.

Maddux acknowledged Thursday that he moved Loggins’ car off base after Loggins disappeared. But Maddux said that Loggins had given him the keys and that he had moved it to make sure Loggins would not get a parking ticket.

But Merwin brought on another former Marine, Tom Vandewater, who told jurors that Loggins loved his car too much to let anyone have his keys. He also said he had found a chain in Maddux’s car that belonged to Loggins.

If jurors have not pieced all this innuendo together yet, Merwin will do it for them in his closing arguments.

“I don’t think these Marines with him that night killed him; I think he died of a drug overdose,” Merwin said. “But I believe they do know something about how he died, which they aren’t telling us.”

Marines Say Loggins Vanished

Rachaels and Maddux have both denied seeing Loggins again after he wandered off on his own. Prosecutors say they are firmly convinced that these former Marines are in no way involved.

Merwin said he recognizes that even if his theory of a drug overdose is correct, he must still explain the pictures of Loggins found in Kraft’s house and car. “Those pictures were obviously taken at an earlier date,” Merwin said.

But Loggins was on restriction and had not left the base for a month.

“We’ll see; film at 11,” Merwin said.

Prosecutors consider their case in the Loggins death to be one of their strongest because of the pictures in Kraft’s house and because of a list found in Kraft’s car.

One of the notations on the list, which prosecutors call a “death list,” is MC HB Tattoo. Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown says that stands for Loggins, who was in the Marine Corps, was last seen in Huntington Beach and had two large tattoos on his arms.