MOORPARK : Prosecution Rests Its Case in Slaying

The prosecution’s case against James Linkenauger, an unemployed Moorpark auto mechanic accused of beating and strangling his wife to death, concluded Thursday after jurors watched a 20-minute videotape of the crime scene.

The darkened courtroom fell silent while the tape of the area where the body of JoAnn Linkenauger was found and the home the couple shared was played to the Ventura County Superior Court jury.

Defense attorney Louis B. Samonsky said he would begin his case Tuesday, but would offer no information on how he plans to defend his client.

He has said previously that someone JoAnn Linkenauger knew from a “secret life” might be responsible for the killing. She was killed within hours of her return Jan. 17 from a weekend trip to Las Vegas.

Investigators found evidence of a beating, including blood spatters in several rooms of the Linkenaugers’ Flory Avenue residence in Moorpark, but the defendant insists he does not know how the blood got there. Also, Linkenauger’s watch was found at the scene where the body was dumped.

Samonsky would not say Linkenauger is being framed, but did say someone else must have entered the residence and beat JoAnn Linkenauger to death before his client returned home that evening or while he was asleep.

“That has to be the way it happened, if he didn’t do it,” Samonsky said.

In a related development Thursday, an alternate juror denied reading news accounts of the case, but admitted to Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr. that his wife had been discussing news reports about the trial with him.

“Your wife reading to you what’s in the paper is the same as you reading it yourself,” Campbell told the man. “You need to tell her the judge is not happy about this.”