WEEK 14*

Randy Steven Kraft, charged with murdering 16 men, is on trial in Orange County Superior Court in what some legal experts say will be the biggest and costliest case in California history.

LAST WEEK

The jurors spent much of time out of the courtroom as the lawyers argued over the admissibility of defense evidence. Kraft’s attorneys won the right to introduce a third party who was once a suspect in the death of Donnie Harold Crisel, 20. But the judge wouldn’t let them introduce the name of serial killer William C. Bonin, who was operating in Orange County at the same time as some murders Kraft is charged with.

THE DEFENSE

‘Film at 11. ‘

--Kraft attorney James G. Merwin’s

answer when reporters pushed him about

upcoming defense evidence.

THE PROSECUTION

‘This is his cowboy act. ‘

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown, chiding Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald, who told the judge he was just clumsy when he tried to introduce inadmissible evidence. Brown said he was shrewed, not clumsy.

NUMBER OF WITNESSES

Last Week: 19.

To Date: 214.

ITEMS LOGGED AS POSSIBLE EVIDENCE

Last week: 52.

To Date: 1,120.

THIS WEEK

Monday is scheduled to be devoted to testimony about the death of Richard Allen Keith, 20, a Marine from Camp Pendleton. It will be the fifth week of defense testimony. So far, there are no indications from the defense whether Kraft will testify.

*Jury selection and legal motions began July 25, 1988, and testimony began Sept. 5. The trial recessed for about 2 months at the end of the prosecution’s case.

--Compiled by Times staff writer Jerry Hicks