At Last Minute, Man Pleads No Contest to Son’s Murder

A Sylmar man on Wednesday surprised prosecutors by pleading no contest to a charge that he murdered his 9-year-old son in what authorities say was a failed murder-suicide attempt.

Ronald Rennie, 38, entered the plea to one count of first-degree murder minutes before his trial was scheduled to begin in Van Nuys Superior Court.

Prosecutors said Rennie gave his son, Christopher, dozens of tranquilizers and antibiotics and took the same drugs and medications himself, then set off nine canisters of pesticide in his Ralston Avenue townhouse. A Van Nuys restaurant owner, Rennie had written a friend that he was tired of living, wanted to be reborn as a native of Thailand and did not want to leave his son “alone in this world,” authorities said.

Christopher was found dead in his father’s bed on June 20, 1988. Rennie was lying beside him in a semiconscious state, prosecutors said.

In exchange for Rennie’s plea, prosecutors agreed to drop a special circumstance allegation that Rennie used poison to kill his son.

Had Rennie been convicted of the special allegation, he could have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the 25 years to life he now will receive, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jay Lipman. Rennie could be eligible for parole in about 15 years, Lipman said.

“It was kind of a shock to me,” said Lipman, who said prosecutors weeks ago offered Rennie the same deal. He insisted then that he wanted to go to trial.

Rennie’s attorney, Harry E. Weiss, said Rennie waited until the moment before trial because “you never give up until you’ve exhausted every remedy.”

Weiss said Rennie “did not intend to kill his son. He intended to kill himself.” Rennie used the pesticides because he had an insect problem and gave his son tranquilizers so he would not be aware of his father’s suicide, Weiss said.

But Lipman said the evidence showed that Rennie planned to kill the boy. He had arranged for the cremation of himself and his son and had mentioned his plans to kill his son in letters to several people.

One of those letters went to Rennie’s attorney, Michael L. Donner, who immediately called police on June 20, 1988. Rushing to Rennie’s townhouse, authorities found nine empty canisters of insecticide and books about suicide, prosecutors said.

The coroner’s office ruled that Christopher’s death was caused by exposure to insecticides. At Rennie’s preliminary hearing in February, 1989, his ex-wife Punnee Rennie, 38, a Thai immigrant, testified that Christopher feared his father.

Another friend testified that Ronald Rennie, who owned a Thai restaurant in Van Nuys, wrote him a letter saying he wanted to die and “be born again as a Thai.”

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann scheduled Ronald Rennie’s sentencing for Nov. 14.