Kraft Prosecution to Cite 8 More Deaths in Next Phase

In a development that will significantly shorten the trial’s penalty phase, the prosecutor who helped convict Randy Steven Kraft of 16 Orange County murders last week revealed Monday that he will use evidence from only eight other slayings--instead of the 21 he had intended to introduce--in seeking a verdict of death against the computer consultant.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown told the court that he will use only the killings that Kraft is accused of committing out of state--six in Oregon between 1980 and 1982 and two in Michigan in 1982.

Brown filed court papers in 1983 and 1984 accusing Kraft of an additional 21 murders besides the 16 in the Orange County charges. But after last week’s jury decision, with Kraft found guilty on all 16 murders, Brown has decided to pare down the numbers to the out-of-state slayings, where the evidence is the most substantial.

“We can accomplish our goal of showing (Kraft’s) activities went beyond Orange County, without letting this trial drag on and on,” Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks said. “Otherwise, we could be here forever.”

Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald, who admits that he is still trying to recover from the blow of last week’s overwhelming jury verdict, said he was not surprised to see Brown cut back on the other slayings.

“Frankly, I don’t know why he even needs Oregon and Michigan,” McDonald said. “When you’re convicted on 16 murders, it’s pretty clear what the jurors are thinking.”

Brown also announced that he would put on the witness stand John Fancher, the man from Colorado who testified at the preliminary hearing nearly 6 years ago that Kraft had sodomized him as a teen-ager.

Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin asked the lawyers to return to court today to discuss setting a date for the penalty phase. But McDonald said he will ask the judge to put off such a decision until next Monday to give the defense time to learn more about what kinds of witnesses Brown plans to present.

McDonald would not reveal any details of the Kraft defense strategy during the penalty phase. The jurors who convicted Kraft now must decide just one issue: whether to return a death verdict or a verdict of life without parole. The judge has the option of rejecting or altering that verdict. But no Orange County jurist has done that under the 1977 law reinstating the death penalty.

Kraft, now 44, of Long Beach is accused by prosecutors as perhaps being the worst serial killer in U.S. history. The numbers can get confusing. Brown, in his court papers, has linked Kraft to 45 slayings: the 16 in the charges, the 21 initially designated for the penalty phase, and 8 additional Los Angeles County slayings added to the case too late to include in the trial.

All of the victims were young men, most between 18 and 25, who were usually hitchhikers. Most were found strangled, sexually mutilated and dumped along freeways.

But Brown also claims that a list found in Kraft’s car, in the defendant’s handwriting, is his own “death list.” It has 61 entries, with at least five of them appearing to stand for double homicides. If prosecutors are right about the list, that would make Kraft’s 11-year murder spree unprecedented in the country.

Kraft was arrested May 14, 1983, when two California Highway Patrol officers found a dead Marine in the front passenger seat of his car. Other evidence found in the car, such as color pictures of other victims, appearing dead or unconscious, led to a round-the-clock investigation. Officials from Oregon and Michigan were on the scene within the first few days.

Kraft was in those states on computer business when all eight of those killings took place. Personal items from at least three of the victims were found in Kraft’s house. Also, there are strong similarities in the way the victims were killed: Most were drugged, most were dumped along or near freeways, and one was mutilated in a fashion that strongly links his death to four of the deaths Kraft is accused of committing in Southern California.

One significant piece of evidence even ties the two states together: A jacket belonging to one of the Oregon victims was found on the same floor of the hotel where Kraft was staying in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the time of two deaths there.

Kraft had gone to Michigan from Oregon in December, 1982, and returned to Oregon from there before flying back to Southern California.