Death Threats by Defendant in Killing Described

A Moorpark man on trial for the slaying of his wife started picking fights and drunkenly told patrons of the local Moose Lodge the night of the slaying that he was “going to blow someone’s head off,” a witness testified Monday.

But James Linkenauger also was deeply depressed to the point of sitting alone in the back room of the bar and weeping by himself for more than 15 minutes, said Moorpark Moose Lodge bartender Patty Crawford.

After composing himself and ordering another whiskey and soda, Linkenauger became out of control and started picking fights among other patrons of the private club on the evening of Jan. 17, Crawford said.

“He said before the night was over he was going to blow someone’s head off,” said Crawford, who testified that Linkenauger made the threat “at least six times” while she was tending bar.

Crawford said the defendant was so drunk when he arrived at the lodge around 7 p.m. the night of the killing that she watered down the three drinks she served him. He left about an hour later.

Prosecutors accuse Linkenauger, 38, of severely beating his wife, JoAnn, when she returned home on Jan. 17, then strangling her and dumping her half-naked body into a muddy ravine near Somis.

Linkenauger, an out-of-work mechanic who has been in custody since January on murder charges, was a compulsively jealous husband who controlled even the smallest details of his wife’s activities, other witnesses testified Monday.

He insisted on packing JoAnn Linkenauger’s luggage when she went on trips, and frequently spoke about his suspicion that she was involved with other men, family friend Matt Carrasco said.

Carrasco, a security guard who worked with JoAnn Linkenauger for several months at Culver Studios, said James Linkenauger once accused him of having an affair with the 39-year-old woman. Carrasco testified Monday that he was never romantically involved with JoAnn Linkenauger.

He visited the Linkenauger home the day before the killing and testified that there were no stains on the walls or carpets, Carrasco said. Police said they found blood splattered throughout the living room and in several spots on the rug when they searched the house two days later.

The Linkenaugers also were involved in an argument the night before JoAnn Linkenauger left home the weekend she was killed, Carrasco said.

“She was upset that Jim wouldn’t let her take her curling iron, her make-up kit, wear a mini-skirt and shave her legs,” Carrasco told a Ventura County Superior Court jury. “He was going to pack her clothes.”

JoAnn Linkenauger told her husband that she was going to San Francisco for a food service industry convention the weekend of Jan. 15 to 17, according to previous testimony. She actually spent the weekend in Las Vegas, witnesses said.

Susan Novak Carrasco, who married Matt Carrasco in March at a ceremony in which James Linkenauger was to have served as best man, testified Monday that the defendant called her around 8 p.m. the night his wife was killed.

“He sounded loud, kind of obnoxious,” said Susan Carrasco, who said she then asked whether JoAnn Linkenauger had returned from her weekend trip.

“He said no, she ain’t coming home and who the hell cares,” she told jurors. “Then he laughed, a real long, icky laugh. It wasn’t just a hee-hee, it was a long, drawn-out laugh.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy said he might rest the prosecution’s case as early as Thursday.

Defense attorney Louis B. Samonsky Jr., who said outside court earlier that someone JoAnn Linkenauger knew from a “secret life” might have killed her, said Linkenauger would take the witness stand in his own defense.