D.A. Introduces 3 Pictures to Link Kraft to Murders

Prosecutors in the Randy Steven Kraft trial began their rebuttal case Thursday by introducing three insignificant-appearing pictures of a mini-mall parking lot that they claim tie Kraft to three murders in 1983.

Kraft, a 44-year-old computer consultant from Long Beach, is on trial in Superior Court in Santa Ana charged with 16 Orange County murders. It was the defense’s attempt to show jurors an alibi for Kraft in one of the slayings that led prosecutors to come back Thursday with the parking lot photos.

Kraft is charged with the Feb. 12, 1983, slayings of Geoffrey Alan Nelson, 18, and Rodger James DeVaul Jr., 20, last seen walking together about 1:30 a.m. that day near Cypress College. Nelson’s body was found dumped along the Euclid Street on-ramp to the Garden Grove Freeway 4 hours later. DeVaul was found in a remote area of the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County the next day.

The defense put on evidence to show that Kraft was at a bridge party in Huntington Beach until nearly midnight the night the two were last seen. Further evidence showed that Kraft was at work at St. Ives Laboratories in Rolling Hills Estates at 9 a.m.

Kraft lawyer C. Thomas McDonald contends that Kraft would not have had time to pick up the two, kill them, dump their bodies 40 miles apart, then go home and change and make it to work by 9 a.m. at St. Ives.

But prosecutors claim that the parking lot photos prove otherwise. The photos were the last three frames on a 24-frame roll of film found in Kraft’s den after his May 14, 1983, arrest. The first 13 frames from the film show a Christmas party, and then an outdoor scene. The 14th frame shows a young man in a car. While his face cannot be seen, prosecutors claim that the clothes prove that it is Eric Herbert Church, 21, found dead on Jan. 27, 1983, in Seal Beach.

Right after that photo are seven photos of young DeVaul in a car. Some are in lewd, partially disrobed poses in which he appears either dead or unconscious. Two of them show him with his right wrist bound by a shoelace. One of them shows a distinct ligature mark on his neck. Authorities say he died from some type of compression to his neck.

The three frames immediately after the DeVaul pictures show the mini-mall parking lot. Significant to prosecutors: The lot is on Silver Spur Road, just down the hill from St. Ives Laboratories. Just a few feet from where the pictures were taken is a 1-hour photo store.

Law enforcement officials contend that the parking lot photos prove that only Kraft could have taken the pictures of DeVaul and Church which came from the same roll of film.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown on Thursday showed jurors a blowup of the area taken from the air, showing the proximity between the mini-mall and St. Ives, just two blocks away.

“The parking lot pictures make it tough for Randy to claim he bought those pictures of DeVaul from some porno dealer in Hollywood,” one law enforcement official said.

Prosecutors theorize that Kraft snapped off the last three pictures next to where he parked his car near the photo store just to finish up the role.

A spokeswoman for the store said her records did not go back far enough to show whether Kraft had his film developed there. However, she did say it was not unusual for the store to develop color pictures showing nudity or lewd poses.

Asked earlier about the importance of the parking lot photos, Kraft attorney McDonald said he did not think they proved anything.

It was Irvine Police Department Investigator Larry Montgomery who discovered where the parking lot photos found at Kraft’s house had been taken. Montgomery testified Thursday that he spent weeks trying to locate the mini-mall.

However, prosecutor Brown did not make the pictures an issue until the defense provided jurors with work sheets proving that Kraft had been at St. Ives the morning Nelson and DeVaul disappeared.

Brown has 2 to 3 more days of rebuttal witnesses before testimony in the Kraft case is finally completed after 8 months. Trial Judge Donald A. McCartin is expected to schedule closing arguments for the week after that. The prosecution and defense are expected to take a day each for closing arguments.

If Kraft is convicted, his trial will move into a penalty phase, where prosecutors are expected to link him to up to 29 other murders in an attempt to win a death verdict against him.