Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty for Convicted Murderer : Crime: Christopher James Sattiewhite is described as a ‘vicious predator’ in the fatal shooting of Genoveva Gonzalez in 1992.

Imploring a jury to send an Oxnard man to the gas chamber, prosecutors described convicted murderer Christopher James Sattiewhite on Monday as a “vicious predator” who realized a childhood fantasy when he fatally shot a mother of four.

But defense attorneys pleaded for mercy, saying Sattiewhite is a former abused child who suffers from a lifelong brain defect that kept him from comprehending the consequences he would face for shooting 30-year-old Genoveva Gonzalez two years ago.

Pointing at an emotionless Sattiewhite, defense attorney Willard P. Wiksell begged the jury to spare the 24-year-old man’s life.

“He is gone. He is done. He’s finished,” Wiksell said dramatically. “The only question is when does he die? Does he die in the gas chamber? Or in prison of old age?”

The daylong remarks from both sides brought to a close all but the jury’s final verdict on the punishment for the defendant in Ventura County’s first death-penalty trial in more than two years.

The jury convicted Sattiewhite last month of first-degree murder and special circumstances that require Sattiewhite’s punishment to be either life in prison without parole or a date with the gas chamber.

Sattiewhite shot Gonzalez in the head three times Jan. 26, 1992, and left her body in a drainage ditch along Arnold Road in Oxnard. Prosecutors say the murder occurred after Sattiewhite inadvertently called out the name of a man who had raped and kidnaped the woman.

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To send Sattiewhite to the gas chamber, the jury essentially must find that the circumstances of the crime--including its severity and the defendant’s criminal history--outweigh factors favoring the prison sentence, such as the defendant’s family history.

Prosecutors were equally as passionate as the defense in their attempts to land a verdict of death.

Conceding that Sattiewhite suffers from “a mental impairment,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said the defendant can nevertheless understand right from wrong.

He argued that Sattiewhite has displayed extraordinary sophistication during his criminal career, which also includes convictions for rape, robbery and drug possession in cases unrelated to Gonzalez’s murder.

Glynn, for instance, noted that Sattiewhite once bragged to a psychologist that he earned $600 to $900 a day selling drugs. “When you think about it, that takes a fair amount of savvy,” Glynn said.

Glynn also said Sattiewhite chose to murder Gonzalez, but not to rape her--an illustration of his ability to distinguish between two acts. Sattiewhite was convicted of aiding and abetting the rape of the woman.

Glynn discounted a defense contention that Sattiewhite was manipulated by two of his ex-associates--Bobby Rollins and Frederick Jackson, both of Oxnard--in both the Gonzalez murder and an earlier rape and robbery on an Oxnard beach. All three men were convicted in the beach case and are serving prison terms stemming from it.

While he never raped Gonzalez or the woman in the beach case, Sattiewhite “chose to be the enforcer,” Glynn said. “He chose to be the guy with the gun.”

Finally, Glynn referred to court testimony in which Sattiewhite allegedly told a psychologist that he has had fantasies of killing someone since he was a child just to see if he could get away with it.

“And now, Christopher Sattiewhite wants you to grant him mercy,” Glynn said.

Wiksell accused Glynn and a co-prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia A. Murphy, of appealing to the jury’s sense of anger and vengeance with anti-crime rhetoric and misstatements.

He said the murder of Gonzalez was a terrible incident, but added that “there is no such thing as a nice murder.”

He also said life in prison would not be lenient treatment for Sattiewhite. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men are not going to save him from being punished,” Wiksell said.

He added later: “He will never see another summertime out of prison.”

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Wiksell noted that an autopsy showed that Gonzalez was unconscious when Sattiewhite pumped three bullets into her head, saying his client never tortured the woman.

He also said Gonzalez, a convicted drug trafficker, was a prostitute who put herself at risk by walking the streets and getting into cars with different men.

“This is not a case where somebody crawled through a window, grabbed a housewife and deliberately kidnaped and raped her,” Wiksell argued. “If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.”

Wiksell said Sattiewhite would never have killed had it not been for a brain defect caused by a car accident his mother had during her pregnancy with him. He said Sattiewhite now cannot write and believes that there are 84 weeks in a year.

“He has no judgment. He has no sense,” Wiksell said. “Why does the D. A. want to make him (appear) smarter? Because they know it is morally wrong to execute someone who is retarded.

“If he never had a break, give him one now,” he added. “Lock him up and throw away the key. Just don’t kill him.”

The jury will begin deliberating this morning.