Moorpark Husband Gets 25 Years to Life for Strangling His Wife : Crime: James Linkenauger still denies his guilt. Judge says the justice system failed to protect the victim.

A Moorpark man who beat and strangled his wife was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison by a judge who said the criminal justice system had failed to protect the victim.

James Michael Linkenauger, 39, continues to maintain his innocence in the January beating death of JoAnn Linkenauger, but Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell said there is no doubt that the defendant is the murderer.

Campbell imposed the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. During the hearing, the prosecution played a 10-minute videotape made by JoAnn Linkenauger’s sister-in-law, in which she went to the grave site and told the judge that “no human being should have to die the way that JoAnn died.”

JoAnn Linkenauger, 40, was killed Jan. 17 in the last chapter in a three-year marriage that was marked by violence almost from the beginning. Her battered, half-naked body was found the next day in a muddy Somis ravine.

The prosecution maintained during the trial that JoAnn Linkenauger was beaten at home and later strangled so she could not have her husband arrested. Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy argued that Linkenauger drove the body to Somis to divert attention from himself and was forced to abandon his wife’s car at the scene when it became stuck in the mud.

Two men testified they picked up Linkenauger that night as he walked in the rain toward Moorpark.

Investigators found blood spattered throughout three rooms of the home the Linkenaugers shared. Many of the bloodstains were covered with bleach in a futile attempt to wash them out.

A probation report prepared for the sentencing hearing chronicled several instances when JoAnn Linkenauger called police to report that she had been beaten by her husband. James Linkenauger denied abusing his wife each time, the report said, and on Nov. 15, 1991, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy wrote in his report that future complaints of violence should be viewed with caution because JoAnn Linkenauger was “endeavoring to manipulate the police to her own personal ends.”

Sheriff’s officials did not return calls Friday afternoon asking for comment on the report.

“The criminal justice system as a whole failed to protect this victim,” Campbell said in sentencing Linkenauger.

JoAnn Linkenauger’s numerous reports to law enforcement that her husband was beating her, plus her written requests for three restraining orders to keep James Linkenauger away from her, should have put the law enforcement community on notice that the defendant was a physical threat to his wife, Campbell said.

“She was in danger, and in the end he killed her,” the judge said.

Asked about Campbell’s contention that the criminal justice system had failed JoAnn Linkenauger, Hardy said, “We can’t do everything. We have fewer and diminishing resources to deal with very complex human problems. This kind of tragedy is something that happens despite what we can do.”

Linkenauger wrote two letters to Campbell before sentencing, denying guilt in both of them.

“The D.A. did not produce one ioda (sic) of evidence in this trial,” Linkenauger wrote. “ . . . My marriage may not of been made in heaven, but the court should know that I loved my wife very much.”

In his second letter to the judge, Linkenauger said he and his wife “were doing all we could to make this marriage work, and it was, when this traggitty (sic) happened.”

However, when Linkenauger was interviewed by a probation officer on what grief he felt for his wife, his answer, as recorded in the probation report, was, “I’m grieving more (about) what they’ve been doing to me after it than (about) the death itself.”

Defense attorney Louis B. Samonsky complained about the contents of the probation report, saying the document was slanted against his client, but otherwise did not argue at the hearing because the sentence in the case was mandatory.

Hardy also made only brief comments to the judge, but in that time he called the defendant arrogant, dishonest, self-centered and cruel and noted that “Mr. Linkenauger doesn’t need any help looking bad.”

In her videotape to the court, Katie Watkins described the impact the murder has had on each member of the family, from JoAnn Linkenauger’s two teen-age daughters to her elderly parents.

“JoAnn suffered horribly before she died,” Watkins said. “ . . . Her last thoughts were of horror that her husband was going to take her life.”

Linkenauger will be eligible for parole in approximately 18 years, although prison officials could keep him in custody for the rest of his life. Campbell, noting that Linkenauger has denied having been violent toward any of the women in his life, said the defendant’s attitude probably will keep him incarcerated until he dies.

Samonsky said the conviction will be appealed on the grounds that Linkenauger was unable to testify at trial because that would have allowed the prosecutor to question him about his prior violent acts toward JoAnn Linkenauger.

“He wasn’t able to get up there, look the jurors straight in the eye and give them his version of the story,” Samonsky said.

The defense attorney said Linkenauger insists he did not kill his wife, even though he has been informed it may be impossible ever to be paroled if he doesn’t admit guilt and claim remorse for his actions.