Sattiewhite Death Sentence Is Upheld : Courts: Judge Lawrence Storch rejects defense attorneys’ request for a life term without parole for the convicted murderer.

A convicted Oxnard murderer was sentenced Monday to die in the gas chamber by a judge whom the Ventura County district attorney’s office described as overly lenient last week.

Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch’s decision upholds a verdict of death for Christopher James Sattiewhite, 24, who shot 30-year-old Genoveva Gonzales in the head three times Jan. 26, 1992, and left her body in a drainage ditch along Arnold Road.

Monday’s sentencing was closely watched by district attorney’s officials because Sattiewhite’s lawyers had requested that Storch throw out the jury’s recommended death sentence for Sattiewhite in favor of life in prison without parole.

On April 19, prosecutors began using a rare legal challenge to ban Storch from hearing any new criminal cases because he granted a defense attorney’s request to alter the verdict in another murder case a week earlier.

In that case, Storch voided a first-degree murder conviction for Todd Love of Newbury Park and convicted him of second-degree murder, a lesser count.

Storch’s decision shaved 10 years from the 25-year prison term that Love faced for killing his sister’s boyfriend. And Storch added three years to Love’s sentence for using a gun in the murder, instead of the five years sought by prosecutors.

On Monday, however, Storch declined to spare Sattiewhite from the death sentence. The judge said he is confident that the evidence presented during the trial supports the jury’s verdict.

“In the 20 years that I’ve been doing this, I have presided over many, many murder cases,” Storch said, in delivering his ruling. “This is one of the most egregious I have seen.”

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Investigators said the Gonzales murder occurred after Sattiewhite inadvertently called out the name of an accomplice who had joined him in kidnaping and raping the victim. The killing was necessary to prevent the woman from identifying her assailants, according to court testimony.

In contrast to the strong emotions he displayed when the jury returned a verdict of death against him March 28, Sattiewhite appeared unmoved by Storch’s pronouncement. He even asked the court to ignore his attorney’s request to delay the sentencing several weeks to further investigate a pre-sentence report in the case.

“I don’t want to continue,” Sattiewhite said, interrupting attorney Willard P. Wiksell, who was trying to ask for the delay. “I want to go. . . . I’ve been here too long. I’m ready to go.”

Sattiewhite’s mother watched her son’s outburst from the audience.

“Boy, shut up!” Margaret Sattiewhite admonished her son.

Afterward, Margaret Sattiewhite expressed disappointment in both the decisions of the judge and the jury.

“I think it was unjust,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes. “I feel bad at this point. It’s just unbelievable.”

Specifically, she criticized the fact that there were no blacks on the jury. Sattiewhite is black.

“I feel if it was a white man, justice would have been done better,” Margaret Sattiewhite told reporters. “There was no blacks on the panel. It should have been moved” to another county.

Attorneys in the case said two blacks were among the large group of people from which 12 jurors were selected. One of those prospective jurors asked to be excused for hardship reasons. The other was excluded by prosecutors, who aren’t required by state law to explain why they disqualify a juror.

In addition to the motion to give Sattiewhite life in prison, Storch also denied a defense motion for a new trial.

Defense attorneys requested the new trial because a probation report revealed for the first time that the 69-year-old mother of victim Genoveva Gonzales opposes the death penalty and told authorities that she did not believe Sattiewhite should face death.

Wiksell accused the prosecution of deception for not telling the jury of the mother’s wishes before the panel deliberated. Wiksell said that information “makes it more likely than not that a different verdict would have been given.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn called that information irrelevant, saying a philosophical viewpoint of a relative is immaterial to the facts of the case.

Storch agreed with Glynn, saying the jury was never led to believe that Gonzales’ mother wanted vengeance for her daughter’s murder.

Wiksell then argued for Storch to use his authority as judge to overrule the jury’s recommendation and send Sattiewhite to prison without parole.

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The defense attorney repeated arguments he made during the trial that Sattiewhite has brain damage and was abused by his father as a child.

“While it is a bad crime,” he said of Gonzales’ death, “I don’t think one can say . . . that this is the most shocking murder to ever hit Ventura County.”

Glynn told the judge that Sattiewhite is much more intelligent than his attorneys acknowledge.

“Although he is scholastically no higher than a 12-year-old, he’s certainly street smart,” Glynn said. “The death penalty was appropriate, and I would ask that the court leave the death penalty intact.”

Storch said he was particularly influenced by two facts that came out during the trial. One is that Sattiewhite and two other men had raped a young woman on the Oxnard Shores Beach several months before Gonzales’ death, while forcing the rape victim’s boyfriend to watch at gunpoint.

The second is that after Gonzales was raped and shot, Sattiewhite and his accomplices went to a restaurant. They ate a meal, seemingly undisturbed by the murder.

“The court has not heard any remorse from the defendant,” Storch said.