Federal Agents Work Months to Crack Case of the Slain Sea Lion

At the Harbor Patrol dock in Redondo Beach, they were a couple of clowns who had been known to do almost anything for a mackerel, up to and including acts of felony fishing out of commercial bait nets.

The two California sea lions had been steady customers at the dock for so long that harbor employees knew them on sight: Bruno, the hefty one, 300 pounds according to one estimate, and Bobo, the one who would take a fish right out of your hand--out of your mouth, if you were brave enough.

Then, early last fall, Bruno turned up with two small-caliber bullet wounds in his side. For two long months, Harbor Patrol officials tried frantically to capture him, hoping the bullets could be removed and the ailing mammal nursed back to health. But for once, Bruno resisted their advances--eluding even a team of marine mammal specialists from Sea World dispatched to his aid. He grew weaker each day and finally died.

Within three days, Bobo swallowed a sardine that had been stuffed with an explosive device and quickly bled to death.

Long Investigation

Federal Marine Fisheries agents worked months to crack the cases--at one point submitting the investigation to NBC-TV’s “Unsolved Mysteries” series--and this week two men pleaded no contest in Los Angeles federal court to charges stemming from Bobo’s death.

Randolph T. Mansfield, 36, a harbor employee from Long Beach who worked on the large bait storage nets at the harbor, pleaded no contest to one count of harassing and killing a federally protected marine mammal, an offense that carries up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Steven E. Mitchell, 34, of Redondo Beach, who operated a sportfishing boat out of the harbor, pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting the killing.

Ray Sautter, a National Marine Fisheries Service agent, said officials had a pretty good idea of who was responsible for the killing when NBC aired the program in December, but as he put it, having a good idea and proving it in court are two different things.

“These marina areas, they’re pretty closed communities,” he said. “A lot of people been there a long time. They know each other. A lot of people depend on each other for work, for their livelihood. You end up with a situation where people who do see things sometimes are reluctant to talk about them.”

Flood of Calls

After the program aired, Sautter sat in the television studio as about 70 calls flooded in.

“I was overwhelmed,” he said. “I think it would be fair to say that there were a number of those callers that knew exactly what had happened.”

But the key witness in the case proved to be Travis Kingery, a deckhand on the sportfishing boat who had already been interviewed by federal agents. At some point--officials will not say when, or why--Kingery began telling a different story.

According to a trial memorandum prepared by the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alice C. Hill, Kingery was present one day last October when Mansfield asked Mitchell whether he could get him a seal bomb--an explosive device to be used only by those with appropriate licenses designed to scare sea lions away from commercial fishing areas.

On the morning of Oct. 26, according to the memorandum, Mansfield and Mitchell were standing on the dock near the bait nets while Kingery was tying up the fishing boat. Mansfield had two sardines in his hand, and threw them, one by one, at Bobo.

Bobo took the second sardine in his mouth and dove. “Was that it?” one of the men asked then, according to the court documents. “It didn’t make any noise. . . . It only made a thud. It wasn’t loud.”

‘He’s Dead’

Within moments, Bobo floated to the surface, lying on his side.

“Oh, God! He’s dead!” Mansfield said.

Mitchell jumped back on the boat as Kingery untied the lines and told Kingery not to tell anyone what he had seen. He drove the boat over Bobo’s body two or three times, the trial memorandum said, then steered the boat back to the pier. Later in the day, Mansfield announced that he was going to notify Harbor Patrol officials that he had seen a sick seal in the harbor.

Kingery was not charged. Both Mitchell and Mansfield initially pleaded not guilty and had been scheduled to go to trial today. But the no-contest plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real on Tuesday evening.

Neither of their attorneys returned phone calls, but Hill said the plea agreement calls for the government to recommend no more than probation, community service and a fine for Mitchell. There is no corresponding agreement for Mansfield. Sentencing was set for Aug. 21.