SANTA ANA : New Penalty Trial Is Set for Sturm

Prosecutors will get a second chance to send convicted triple-murderer Gregory Allan Sturm to the gas chamber, a judge ruled Friday.

Sturm, 22, was convicted last month of murdering three former co-workers at a Tustin auto parts store in the course of a drug-related robbery. The jury found him guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, with five special circumstances, any one of which was sufficient to send him to the gas chamber, but then deadlocked 10-2 in favor of life in prison without parole.

Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin, who was bound by law to accept the prosecution’s request, set Oct. 19 for a new penalty trial for Sturm.

“On balance,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum after making the request, “I believed (that) this is an appropriate case to seek the death penalty, where three young men are tied up and shot in the head. If this case doesn’t warrant it, I don’t know what case does.”

Deputy Public Defender William G. Kelley said he was “not surprised” by the district attorney’s recommendation. Kelley said that in the current law and order climate, prosecutors ignored the first jury, with most members voting for leniency.

“It’s very political,” Kelley said of the decision.

Della Garrett, Sturm’s grandmother, was also disappointed by the recommendation.

“He’s going to be a prisoner the rest of his life,” the Garden Grove woman said. “Now, if that isn’t torture and punishment enough, I don’t know what is.”

Sturm’s attorney argued that he was high on cocaine on Aug. 19, 1990, when he robbed the Super Shops outlet for money to buy more drugs. He bound and then shot at close range the three young men--one of whom begged for his life--to eliminate any witnesses to the robbery, which netted him about $1,100, according to the prosecution.

“I think society has an interest in seeing that a person who commits this type of crime receives the maximum punishment,” Rosenblum said. “If you could ask any parent if that happened to their children would they want the person to receive the maximum punishment, I think most people would say yes.”

There were two criteria in making his decision, the prosecutor said:

“One, whether or not this is an appropriate case for the death penalty. And, two, whether or not there is a reasonable probability that a jury, hearing all the evidence, would return with a verdict of death.”

Rosenblum said another critical factor in making his decision was an hour and a half discussion he had with eight of the jurors after the verdict.

“They were all very supportive of having the case retried,” he said.

Since all the new jurors will be hearing about the case for the first time, Rosenblum said the second penalty phase will in fact be “an abbreviated trial,” with much of the same evidence presented in the guilt phase of the first trial.

Kelley seemed equally prepared to retry the case, beginning with a motion to disqualify McCartin.

“I don’t think the judge gave me fair or correct legal rulings on the admissibility of a lot of my evidence,” he said.