Kraft Side Mum as Witnesses Tell of Oregon Dead

The prosecution’s evidence Tuesday against Randy Steven Kraft was much like before: more dead bodies found by roadsides, more gruesome pictures, more damning evidence found in Kraft’s possession to tie him to the victims.

But the major difference was in the defense’s posture. Instead of challenging minute details of the prosecution’s case, as Kraft’s lawyers had during the guilt phase of the trial, Kraft’s lawyers Tuesday were virtually mum.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown put on more than half a dozen witnesses to testify about three of six murders in Oregon he has linked to Kraft. Defense lawyer James G. Merwin did not ask a single question of any of them.

Trial’s Penalty Phase

The defense lawyers acknowledged that the evidence was overwhelming.

“They never promised us a rose garden,” Merwin said outside the courtroom later.

Kraft, now 44, a Long Beach computer consultant, was convicted in Santa Ana last month of the sex-related murders of 16 young men in Orange County. While prosecutors claim that he has killed at least 45 people in three states, Brown has chosen to present evidence of only eight of those, in Oregon and Michigan, during the penalty phase of Kraft’s trial.

The first of the Oregon murders was the most devastating to the defense. It was that of Michael Sean O’Fallon, 17, whose body was found along an Interstate 5 entrance ramp a few miles south of Salem on July 17, 1980.

O’Fallon was found hogtied with shoelaces, the same as one of the Orange County victims. He had been sexually mutilated, the same as several of the Orange County victims. Drugs found in his system matched drugs later found in Kraft’s car.

Most important, a camera the victim had been carrying was found in Kraft’s garage after his arrest on May 14, 1983.

The film in the camera had pictures of Canada; O’Fallon had just passed through Canada. On the camera were the initials “MJO”-- O’Fallon’s mother’s initials--and a decal identified on the witness stand by both the victim’s mother and his brother. In fact, his brother had kept matching decals, which were presented in court.

In addition, the notation “Portland Denver” was on a handwritten list found in Kraft’s car, one of six “Portland” entries, which Brown claims match the six Oregon murders. O’Fallon’s family lived in a Denver, Colo., suburb.

Little to Be Said

Kraft lawyers, Merwin and C. Thomas McDonald, said after court there was little to be said about such evidence. Merwin had said earlier that it is useless to challenge the Oregon and Michigan slayings when jurors already believe that Kraft killed 16 other people.

“The real focus of the penalty phase should be on Randy’s character and background,” Merwin has said.

Jurors must decide at the end of the penalty phase whether to return a death verdict against Kraft or life without parole. They are not asked to vote whether Kraft killed the Oregon and Michigan victims. But they are told that they cannot consider those murders in voting death for Kraft unless they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed them.

The prosecution evidence in the Oregon murders was no more upsetting to the Kraft lawyers than it was for some of the victims.

Rosalie Cluck, of Kent, Wash., whose 17-year-old son, Michael, was found dead in Oregon in 1981, had been scheduled to testify today. But she and her husband, Duane, were so anxious to leave Orange County and return home that Brown readjusted his schedule to let her testify Tuesday.

The Clucks, who hate to fly, had driven 1,360 miles to be here. They left their home Saturday afternoon, after Duane Cluck finished his shift as a machinist, and arrived late Sunday night.

“We’re just anxious to get home,” Duane Cluck said later. “I’ve never really liked California, especially now.”

Their son, against their fervent wishes, had set out hitchhiking on April 10, 1981, after a friend had promised him a job in the oil fields near Bakersfield. He was murdered near Interstate 5 a few miles south of Portland the same day.

Rosalie Cluck said she was so nervous about testifying that she ended up looking at Kraft when she had intended not to.

“He sat there grinning at me; it gave me the willies,” she said.

Her testimony was important to Brown. She identified a shaving kit belonging to her son, which had been found at Kraft’s house. Michael Cluck’s name, printed inside, had been covered with black tape.

“We’ve waited eight years for this,” Rosalie Cluck said. “But it’s so hard. We’ve had to endure this for eight years.”

Brown is scheduled to complete the rest of the prosecution’s case by the middle of next week. Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin surprised the jurors by announcing that he would give the defense a monthlong break before it begins putting on its own witnesses.

After Brown finishes, the Kraft trial will shut down until July 17. The defense lawyers said it will take them probably two--and possibly more--weeks to present their side.