Death Penalty Decreed for Killer of 4 Women

An illiterate construction worker convicted of four murders, including two “Southside Slayer” killings of prostitutes in South-Central Los Angeles, was sentenced Tuesday to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin.

Louis Craine, 32, stared ahead in glum silence as Compton Superior Court Judge Janice Claire Croft rejected a defense plea that would have allowed him to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bodies Discarded

Acting on the recommendation of a Superior Court jury that in May recommended capital punishment, Croft said that Craine’s “victims fought frantically for their lives . . . and he manually strangled each of them to death and discarded their bodies in abandoned houses, vacant lots and an alley like so much trash.”

After the sentencing, defense attorney Morris B. Jones told reporters that he would appeal based on Croft’s last-minute removal of the sole juror who had held out against the death penalty.

Juror Carol Martin was removed from the 12-member panel after several fellow jurors reported to Croft at a court hearing that Martin was refusing to deliberate, was acting “spaced out” and had drunk a liter of wine at a restaurant during lunch.

Before the hearing, jurors had informed Croft that they were hopelessly deadlocked, 11-1. After an alternate was appointed, the jury deliberated only four more hours before returning with a unanimous recommendation in favor of death.

Martin, who did not testify at the hearing, has since sent Jones and Deputy Dist. Atty. John Watson a letter saying she was surprised that she was not given a chance to defend herself. She added that although she had voted to convict Craine, she was holding out against the death penalty because of her sympathy with his difficult childhood.

Motion Dismissed

Croft dismissed a defense motion Tuesday for a new trial, saying that Martin was removed because of evidence that “she wasn’t deliberating.” Jones countered that “argumentativeness is part of the deliberating process--we don’t want rubber stamps in here.”

As for the drinking allegations, the defense attorney added, “I’ve seen judges go to the the Sizzler (a restaurant next to the courthouse) and drink during the noon hours. . . . Everyone has a different tolerance.”

Watson, who prosecuted the case, praised Croft’s sentencing.

“These were vicious, vicious murders (and) the defendant has never shown any remorse at all,” he said.

Watson said Craine may also have been involved in several other attacks attributed to the so-called Southside Slayer. But he added that it is likely that at least four or five different criminals were responsible for the string of 18 murders.

Charges against another suspect in three of the Slayer killings, former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Rickey Ross, were dismissed last month after weapons tests linking Ross to the slayings were proven wrong. Two other men have also been arrested in connection with Southside Slayer killings.

Craine was found guilty of first-degree murder in the strangling deaths of Loretta Perry, found dead in a vacant South Defiance Avenue house in January, 1987; Gail M. Ficklin, found in an alley near South Grande Street in August, 1985; Vivian Louise Collins, found in an abandoned house on East Century Boulevard in 1986, and Carolyn Barney, found in a vacant lot in May, 1987.

Sexual Assault

Craine, who was also convicted of three counts of sexual assault on the victims, was acquitted of a fifth slaying, the November, 1984, stabbing and strangulation of Sheila Rae Burris.

The defendant, who has a sixth-grade education and an IQ of 69, left home while in his mid-teens and lived in downtown transient hotels and the caretaker’s room of a coin laundry, where he served as an attendant. For the five months before his arrest, Craine, who has no previous felony convictions, had returned to live at his parents’ home.

The sentencing took place just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that murderers who suffer mental retardation may be put to death.

During Craine’s trial, defense attorneys contended that his confession resulted from his low intelligence, which gave him the tendency to “parrot” the statements of others.

Watson countered that “in the legal sense, there is no question of him being mentally competent.” Craine, Watson said, was able to live on his own, hold down jobs and bear up under lengthy cross-examination in court.