Concession Made in Death-Penalty Case

The first death-penalty case in Ventura County in more than two years opened Tuesday with a major concession: The defendant is guilty of killing the victim in the case, his lawyers said.

Christopher James Sattiewhite is charged with murder, kidnaping and rape in connection with the Jan. 26, 1992, slaying of Genoveva Gonzales, the mother of four and an alleged streetwalker.

Sattiewhite’s attorney, Willard P. Wiksell, said Sattiewhite put a gun to the victim’s head and squeezed the trigger three times, killing her.

“Getting right to the point,” Wiksell told the hushed courtroom, “the evidence will be that Mr. Sattiewhite did shoot Genoveva Gonzales.”

Wiksell denied, however, that Sattiewhite kidnaped and raped the woman and said that the defendant should be found guilty of no more than second-degree murder.

Prosecutors have charged that Sattiewhite shot the woman in the commission of a rape and murder and should be found guilty of first-degree murder and a special allegation that could send him to the gas chamber.

In his opening statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn told the jury of nine women and three men that Sattiewhite deserves to be convicted of the most severe charges against him.

Glynn portrayed Sattiewhite as a callous man who helped abduct Gonzales off the streets of Oxnard and stood by as an accomplice repeatedly raped the woman. Glynn said Sattiewhite cruised the city in a Cadillac as the other man, Frederick Jackson, raped Gonzales in the back seat.

*

Jackson, who is in prison on a separate case, has not been charged in Gonzales’ rape and slaying.

According to Glynn’s opening statement, Gonzales, who was 4-foot-10 and 105 pounds, was accosted by Sattiewhite and Jackson somewhere in the city after she left a 5th Street bar.

Glynn said one of his main witnesses will be Bobby Rollins, a former friend of Sattiewhite. Rollins will testify that he saw Jackson raping and striking Gonzales, Glynn said, and that he saw Sattiewhite with the gun at the scene after shooting the woman and dumping her body.

He also said that Sattiewhite’s ex-girlfriend will testify that the defendant called her after the shooting and admitted the slaying.

“He said to his girlfriend, ‘Fred raped the lady and (Sattiewhite) called out his name,’ and Fred told him to kill her,” Glynn said.

Wiksell said the prosecution’s theory of the case involving a rape and kidnaping “is just flat wrong.”

Wiksell said Gonzales was a drug addict and prostitute, well known in Oxnard for trading sex for drugs.

The night she was killed, he said, Gonzales went to the 5th Street bar. While at the bar, he said, she choked one man and had to be pulled from him.

“She was known to be very aggressive,” Wiksell said.

He said she got into the car Sattiewhite was driving because she knew Jackson. He said Jackson struck a deal to provide Gonzales with drugs in exchange for sex.

After consenting to sex, Gonzales became upset when Jackson reneged on his promise to give her narcotics, Wiksell told the jury. The two of them fought, he said, and Jackson ordered Sattiewhite to shoot the woman.

“That was a crime, and I expect you will find him guilty of something,” Wiksell said.

Wiksell also attacked the credibility of Sattiewhite’s former friend, Rollins. Glynn had already told the jury that prosecutors agreed to allow 30 years to be shaved off a 50-year sentence Rollins could have gotten in a separate case in exchange for his testimony against Sattiewhite.

Wiksell said Rollins was in the car with Sattiewhite before Gonzales was shot. He said in addition to lesser sentence in the other case, Rollins is testifying in the Sattiewhite case because prosecutors did not charge him in it.

“He lied and distanced himself completely, so he could walk away from this, and they (prosecutors) bought it hook, line and sinker,” Wiksell said.

*

Outside court, Sattiewhite’s brother-in-law, Wayne Walker, a 32-year-old former pro football player, complained about the makeup of the jury. There are no blacks on the jury. Sattiewhite is black.

Countywide, 2% of the population is black and 26% is Latino.

“I told my wife, ‘We don’t have a chance,’ ” said Walker, holding his 2-month-old daughter, Raven. “It’s a no-win situation. That’s prejudice right there. I don’t see how my brother-in-law has a fair chance.”

Attorneys said only two blacks were in the jury pool. One asked to be excused for hardship reasons. The other was excluded by the prosecution. The defense said it filed a motion charging that minorities were systematically removed by the prosecution.