Jurors to Decide Whether Transient Who Murdered Girl Should Be Put to Death

The fate of a 60-year-old transient who killed a 14-year-old Chatsworth girl and shot her friend was placed with a jury Wednesday, with the prosecutor urging that Roland Norman Comtois die in the gas chamber.

“The punishment should fit the crimes,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn told jurors on the final day of the penalty phase of Comtois’ trial. “And in this case, the crimes are so bad, so violent, so terrible . . . the only appropriate verdict you can render is a verdict of death.”

Comtois was found guilty June 6 of killing Wendy Masuhara and shooting her 13-year-old friend and leaving her for dead after kidnaping both girls from their Chatsworth neighborhood in September, 1987.

The same jury that convicted Comtois must now decide whether he will die in the gas chamber or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a lengthy closing argument, defense attorney James D. Gregory pleaded with jurors to show mercy and spare Comtois, who is in poor health.

“The retribution of taking Ray Comtois’ life will not bring Wendy back,” he said. “If it could, that would be another matter. If we kill Ray Comtois, it will be just one more death.”

Gregory, who spoke softly, played on the doubts of jurors and sought to show Comtois as a frail, old man who was a good father to his three children.

“It is the most awesome decision you will have to make,” he said. “Your decision could haunt you forever.”

He argued that life imprisonment was appropriate for Comtois because of his age.

“Who is he going to be a danger to in jail?” he asked. “I bet you, ladies and gentlemen, he will die a lonely, cruel death. That’s what’s in store for this man.”

In a effort to gain sympathy for Comtois, Gregory described the gray-bearded defendant’s childhood in a Massachusetts orphanage after his mother’s death.

“He goes to an orphanage where he was struck, where he was beaten,” he said, adding that when Comtois returned to live with his father he was subjected to more abuse.

“The discipline in that family was to go out and cut your own switch so your Dad could beat you with it. He grew up in pain.”

During testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, Gregory relied heavily on a collage of photographs depicting Comtois in candid shots playing with his children.

In his closing statement, Lynn referred to those photos and then to a police photo of the body of Comtois’ victim and said loudly: “This is now. This is this case. This . . . is why you’re here.”