Sister Says Comtois a Good Father

Family members of a transient facing the death penalty for the murder of a 14-year-old Chatsworth girl tearfully testified Monday that, despite Roland Norman Comtois’ unhappy childhood, he was a good father to his three children.

“When he was home, he was a good father,” said Theresa Webb, Comtois’ sister. “I know a lot of good fathers in jail right now.”

Webb said Comtois, who has spent much of the last 40 years in and out of jail, always wrote to his children.

“I know in my heart that I’ll never see my dad outside an institution,” said Comtois’ 31-year-old son, Raymond, his voice cracking. “I know he’s going to die in jail. It’s the end of our relationship.”

Raymond Comtois lives in Carson City, Nev., and is studying to become a teacher.

The testimony came on the first day of the penalty phase of Roland Comtois’ trial for the 1987 slaying of Wendy Masuhara and the sexual assault and shooting of her 13-year-old friend. Comtois, 60, was convicted June 6 of eight felony counts, including murder, attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnaping.

Jurors will hear testimony about Comtois and decide whether he should die in the gas chamber or spend the rest of his life in prison. During the penalty phase of a trial, prosecutors are allowed to bring up prior convictions as evidence of a criminal history, and defense attorneys generally rely on character witnesses, Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn said.

Lynn offered three felony convictions against Comtois--a rape, an attempted bank robbery and a robbery--as evidence before resting his case.

Webb, 64, describing her brother’s childhood in Massachusetts, said he was beaten and locked in closets for wetting the bed at the orphanage his father sent him to after their mother died. His mother’s death had a dramatic effect on Comtois, then 4, Webb said.

“He was just very quiet,” she said.

Later, she said, crying: “I care for him. I love him. I know he’s got some good in him. I don’t want him to die. He’s all I got left.”

Webb cried during most of her questioning by defense attorney James D. Gregory but answered Lynn’s questions coldly and crisply.

In a hearing before the penalty phase began, Comtois himself testified in a gravelly voice that he was not informed of his right to a jury trial in previous crimes. Defense attorneys had hoped that information would preclude prior convictions against Comtois from being brought before the jury.

Judge Ronald S. Coen allowed the convictions to be used, saying he did not believe Comtois.