Sect Member Convicted of Murder

A lifelong member of the Hare Krishna sect was found guilty of murder for hire Tuesday, five years after a dissident member of the group was slain execution-style near a Krishna palace in Palms.

Thomas Drescher--who until his arrest had gone by the name of Tirtha Swami--sat impassively as the jury of six men and six women pronounced him guilty of first-degree murder charge and a special circumstance. The verdict makes him subject to the death penalty.

It was the second trial for Drescher, 43, who was charged with the 1986 slaying of Stephen Bryant, a zealous critic of the Krishnas who traveled the country in a camper-trailer, preaching against the Hindu religious sect.

In January, jurors in Drescher’s first trial deadlocked 8 to 4 in favor of acquittal. A juror from that mistrial showed up in court Tuesday and wept as the verdict was read.

“They’re wrong,” sobbed former juror Kim Stone, wiping tears from her cheeks outside the courtroom. “He’s an innocent man.”

But prosecutors argued the evidence pointed to Drescher, who acknowledged he had stalked Bryant from coast to coast in an effort to protect Krishna leaders.

Bryant, 33, was shot twice in the head at close range with a .45-caliber handgun on May 26, 1986, as he sat behind the wheel of his van. He had once been a resident of the sect’s New Vrindaban community near Moundsville, W. Va., where the Krishnas had built a lavish “Palace of Gold” that once attracted as many as 250,000 tourists a year.

Bryant had a falling-out with sect leaders there, blaming them and then-guru Bhaktipada for the breakup of his marriage. He began publicizing his complaints and wrote a book accusing temple leaders of involvement in drug abuse, prostitution, child abuse and murder. Eventually, he brought his campaign to Los Angeles.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris charged that sect leaders in Moundsville promised Drescher $8,000 if he would kill Bryant. Witnesses, including Jeffrey Breier, a one-time Krishna security guard in Los Angeles, testified that Drescher stalked Bryant for weeks and scouted remote mine shafts as possible places to dump the body.

But defense witnesses said Drescher was not in Los Angeles when Bryant was killed, and argued that the evidence pointed less to Drescher than to Breier, who testified for the prosecution under a grant of immunity.

A witness who lived near the scene of the shooting testified that he saw a sports car speed away just after the shots were fired--a car that appeared more like Breier’s Alfa Romeo than Drescher’s four-door Chevrolet. Also, gun records showed Breier owned three .45-caliber pistols, but turned over only one to police when they questioned him as a suspect, saying that at least one of his three had been stolen.

But Breier testified he was only a witness to the crime. He said he was with Drescher when he followed Bryant to the West Los Angeles-area temple, and left him at about 9 p.m., three hours before witnesses reported hearing shots fired.