Judge Scolded Attorneys for Sluggish Pace

“This trial should have been over in three months,” Judge Donald A. McCartin snapped at lawyers for Randy Steven Kraft last week.

On Friday, jurors fixed Kraft’s punishment at death for 16 torture slayings, almost 11 months after testimony began, making it the longest criminal trial in the history of Orange County Superior Court.

The slow pace frustrated the judge and the prosecution and sparked heated exchanges throughout the trial between McCartin and Kraft attorney C. Thomas McDonald.

The first clash came last October, when Kraft co-counsel James G. Merwin became ill, forcing a delay in cross-examination of an out-of-state witness. The judge said he could not understand why McDonald did not conduct the cross-examination. McDonald said the two lawyers had split the 16 murders, and this one was one of Merwin’s.

McCartin blew up.

“I could cross-examine this witness; a freshman in law school could cross-examine this witness,” the judge said.

But McCartin’s strongest criticism of the defense came earlier this year, when the defense began. With the courtroom open until 4:30 p.m., Kraft lawyers on most days ran out of witnesses before 2 p.m. Many days, testimony ended before noon.

“The jury has to wonder what in the world we’re doing in here,” McCartin said.

McDonald repeatedly attempted to explain the difficulties in scheduling witnesses from all over the country. In one angry exchange, McDonald told the judge his day began at 5 most mornings to prepare for trial.

“Your Honor, I am doing the very best I can,” McDonald said. “And quite frankly, the court’s comments are not helping matters any.”

McCartin also criticized Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown for presenting evidence the judge thought was irrelevant, such as the contents of the glove compartment of Kraft’s car. He also scolded Brown once for taking too much time presenting rebuttal witnesses. Two major delays plagued the proceedings.

After prosecutors completed the first portion of their case last November, designed to prove Kraft guilty of the murders, defense attorneys asked for a month’s delay. It was two months before the defense began.

Then after Kraft was convicted, the judge allowed prosecutors another month’s delay before beginning the final phase of the case, which ended Friday with the death penalty.

But despite the setbacks, the Kraft trial was completed in less time than some had predicted. The judge told the jurors in September to be prepared for a yearlong trial.

The trial ran 13 months. After jurors were selected, they spent little time in court until testimony began in late September.

By comparison, the Night Stalker murder trial in Los Angeles County began the same day as the Kraft trial, July 18, 1988. The trial has not yet determined whether defendant Richard Ramirez is guilty. It took less than two months to pick the Kraft jury, contrasted with more than five months to produce a jury in the Night Stalker case.

Several other trials in the state have lasted longer than Kraft’s, including the Hillside Strangler case and the McMartin Pre-School trials in Los Angeles County.