Man Gets Life Sentence in Abduction, Burglary

A Canoga Park man arrested after a woman found him asleep in her bed was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday following his conviction for the sexual battery, abduction and burglary of another woman.

Randall Don Graff, 24, was sentenced to the maximum prison term by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith Meisels Ashmann, who found him guilty of the charges last month.

Graff--described in court records as a security guard and burglar alarm installer--was arrested March 19, 1990, when a Woodland Hills woman returned home from a ballet and found him asleep in her bed. He was wearing a black ski mask and a “fanny pack” containing tools and a knife, according to trial testimony.

Graff was linked through the fanny pack, fingerprints and his own statements to a Nov. 19, 1989, incident in which another Woodland Hills woman was overpowered and abducted by a man who broke into her house.

The intruder took property from the house and molested the woman before agreeing to her suggestion that she drive him to an automated teller machine where she could get him money. After getting $200 from the ATM, the man released the woman.

In convicting Graff, Ashmann agreed with Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth A. Loveman’s contention that the victim had been kidnaped for robbery--a crime carrying a penalty of life in prison--because her suggestion that she drive to the ATM was a ploy to avoid being raped or killed by Graff.

Loveman said that under sentencing guidelines, Graff could become eligible for parole in seven years.