Jury Believes Torture Tale, Acquits Rader

A Vista Superior Court jury Thursday acquitted Alberta (Ann) Rader of all charges in the killing of her husband of less than a year, saying afterward that they believed her story that she acted in self-defense after being subjected to a night of torture at the hands of her fourth husband.

Rader, 51, cried, hugged her attorney and pronounced, “There is a God,” after the clerk read “Not guilty” to each of the charges the jury considered: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. Her family, sitting in the first row of Judge Richard Murphy’s courtroom, gasped in relief.

“I think I’ll be stronger than ever,” Rader, a real estate agent, said as she left the courthouse. “I’ve made Vista my home, and now I love it more than ever.”

Jurors said that Deputy Dist. Atty. Walt Donovan failed to prove his allegation that Rader fabricated a scene of torture and then deliberately killed her husband, Thomas, because she was angry that he was going to drop her and because she wanted to collect about $350,000 in life insurance.

“We truly believed Ann Rader was terrified to the point where she had to defend herself,” jury foreman Kevin Verduyn said.

Juror Donald L. Krout Jr. said, “There wasn’t enough evidence to lean any other way.” He said that Rader would have to have “an awfully creative mind” to have staged the scene of the killing.

Rader testified in her own behalf during the three-week trial, saying that her husband, angry after she told him she was going to leave him, held her in bondage in bed, raping her, putting a gun in her mouth and cutting her stomach and neck with the point of scissors. When he fell asleep, she said, she reached for the handgun resting between them and shot him three times in the left side of his head.

The prosecution alleged that Rader shot her husband once in the head while he was asleep, hoping it would appear to be a suicide, then shot him twice more after the first shot didn’t kill him. Afterward, she self-inflicted the cuts, Donovan charged, and contrived the story of torture.

Donovan said he would not second-guess his case and said the jurors “didn’t clearly see through the extraordinarily complex evidence.”

But, he added: “They made a thoughtful decision. The jury system was in operation. They believed her. What can I say?”

The jury deliberated for nearly three days.