Cocaine’s Role in Triple Slaying Debated at Trial

SANTA ANA — Defense and prosecution attorneys told jurors Monday that Gregory Allan Sturm bound, robbed, shot and killed three former co-workers at a Tustin auto parts store, a crime for which Sturm could be sent to the gas chamber.

The major point of disagreement, the attorneys said in their opening statements, was what role, if any, cocaine played in the 21-year-old Tustin man’s actions. The defense hopes to prove that he was under the influence of cocaine and thus avoid the death penalty.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said that, although Sturm did use cocaine, he was not under the influence when the crime was committed. The triple murder was “a cold, calculated killing,” he told Superior Court jurors, and “for a measly $1,100” Sturm “took these three lives.”

The bodies of the three men, who were bound hand and foot with tape, were found on the morning of Aug. 20, 1990, seated on chairs in a storage room of a Tustin Super Shops outlet. Killed were Darrell Esgar, 22, of Huntington Beach, the store’s assistant manager, and two salesmen, Chad Chadwick, 22, of Orange and Russel B. Williams, 21, of Seal Beach.

Several weeks before the killings, Sturm had been fired as a salesman for coming in late and for stealing.

Rosenblum said that, for the killings, Sturm deserves “the most severe penalty possible,” which in this case is death. Rosenblum said he would introduce several taped interviews between Sturm and investigators, one of which is 2 1/2 hours long.

Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley told jurors that Sturm “was not here to offer excuses for his actions” and “not here to blame others. . . . (He) accepts responsibility for his deed.”

However, the defense attorney went on to say that Sturm had a cocaine habit and that he was high at the time of the robbery, which he carried out to get money to buy more drugs.

Sturm rode to the store the evening of Aug. 19 on his bicycle. The .38-caliber handgun he used in the robbery discharged the first time by accident, Kelley said. After that, Sturm acted as if he were on “automatic pilot.”

To counteract the videotape he expects the prosecution will play, Kelley acknowledged that Sturm “acted like a scared 20-year-old” and lied to police to avoid responsibility.

Rosenblum began presenting the prosecution’s case by showing the jury a police videotape taken the day the bodies were discovered, which included close-ups of the slain young men.

Both Sturm’s and the victims’ relatives and friends wept in the spectator section of the courtroom. Sturm looked at the floor when the bodies were shown on the screen.

Several witnesses who knew and worked with Sturm testified Monday that he had used cocaine. Co-worker Richard LeBare said he had loaned Sturm a shotgun and the handgun later identified by police as the murder weapon. LeBare said Sturm told him that he wanted to go target shooting.

Several eyewitness descriptions, which fit Sturm, placed him at the Super Shops near the time of the killings--shortly after closing--and Sturm’s fingerprint was found at the scene, police said.

On the day the bodies were found, Sturm returned to the scene with another salesman, telling police that they wanted to say a prayer for the victims.

Sturm, who was raised in an upper-middle class Riverside neighborhood, dropped out of Rubidoux High School, where he was a member of the swim team and cheerleading squad, because of poor grades, according to a neighbor interviewed at the time of the killings. Some of his neighbors portrayed him as a troubled young man, often at odds with neighbors and his family.

One neighbor reported Sturm to police for firing a pellet gun at his window during a party, and the same man filed a police report that Sturm had pulled a gun on the man’s wife.

At the time of his arrest for the killings, police had arrest warrants for Sturm, who was accused of punching a motorist in Riverside County and stealing vehicles and fleeing from authorities in San Bernardino County.

While he was in custody on the murder charges, Sturm had attempted an escape. He has pleaded guilty to escaping from custody, which carries with it a sentence of 16 months to three years in prison. On Nov. 30, 1990, Sturm bolted from sheriff’s deputies after being treated at Western Medical Center-Anaheim for what he said was an ankle injury.

As he was being loaded into a van, Sturm dropped his crutches and tried to kick off the fresh cast. After a short chase, he was recaptured.