Mass-Killer Kraft Flown to Death Row
A solemn Randy Steven Kraft, convicted of killing 16 young men in Orange County, was delivered Thursday by Orange County sheriff’s deputies to Death Row at San Quentin state prison.
A day after being sentenced to die in the gas chamber, Kraft was flown from Orange County to the Northern California facility in a private aircraft owned by a reserve Sheriff’s Department aero-squadron member.
During the hourlong flight, Kraft was “quiet and subdued,” Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Olson said.
“He did not talk to the deputies during the flight and there were no incidents or problems,” said Olson, adding that Kraft was formally handed over to state authorities upon his arrival at San Quentin about 10:30 a.m.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin issued the death sentence to Kraft on Wednesday more than six months after a jury found the 44-year-old former Long Beach computer consultant guilty of killing 16 men over a 12-year period.
Kraft’s trial lasted more than 13 months, and experts say the process of appealing the death penalty case could take as long as 10 years. Kraft has been in custody since he was arrested with a dead man in his car on Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo in May, 1983.
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