Kraft Trial Nearing End of Another Phase

Another phase of the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial in Santa Ana is expected to conclude today as the prosecution calls the last of its witnesses. That could leave just one more day of defense testimony before lawyers make closing arguments.

Kraft, 44, is being tried in Orange County Superior Court on charges of murdering 16 young men. Testimony began last September.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown began presenting rebuttal witnesses last Thursday after a 10-week defense by Kraft’s attorneys. Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald has said his final round of witnesses could then take 1 or 2 days, depending on how quickly he can schedule any witnesses he might need.

Defense Loses Point

Judge Donald A. McCartin has indicated to jurors that closing arguments in the case could come next week. It was not known whether the defense will request a delay between the end of testimony and closing arguments. It is expected to take the judge and the lawyers at least a day to prepare jury instructions before closing arguments.

If Kraft is convicted, his trial will then move into a penalty phase in which jurors will decide between a sentence of death or of life in prison with no possibility of parole. Brown is expected in case of a penalty trial to accuse Kraft of up to 29 other murders: six in Oregon, two in Michigan and the rest in Southern California. These include six Orange County murders not listed in the 16 charges on which Kraft is being tried.

On Monday, defense lawyers argued unsuccessfully that a significant piece of evidence linking Kraft to the death on June 11, 1978, of Roland Gerald Young, 23, should be excluded.

Los Angeles County criminalist James Bailey, one of the country’s most renowned experts on hair evidence, reported that a hair found on Young’s pants was consistent with hair from Kraft’s scalp, analyzed after Kraft’s May 14, 1983, arrest.

Kraft attorney William J. Kopeny argued that Brown should have presented this evidence earlier and claimed that its use so late in the trial for the sake of a “dramatic effect” on the jury would be unfair.

“It’s unfair for the people to wait until the end of the case to put on Bailey,” Kopeny said.

Brown responded that the defense has used testimony about other trace evidence found on Young which did not lead to Kraft--leaving jurors with the impression that no ties to Kraft existed.

The judge permitted Bailey’s testimony. Hair evidence, unlike fingerprints, cannot be used to implicate a specific individual. Bailey testified that the hair on Young was light brown or blond and that it had characteristics similar to a Kraft hair he studied. A third party whom the Kraft lawyers are attempting to blame for the Young murder had black hair.