Rathbun Insists Sobek’s Death Was Accidental

Although admitting inconsistencies, even lies, in his previous statements to authorities, murder suspect Charles Rathbun insisted Monday that he accidentally asphyxiated model Linda Sobek during a struggle on a photo shoot last November.

During a sometimes combative cross-examination by Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Jean Bowman, the 39-year-old defendant maintained--as he has since taking the witness stand last week--that Sobek died accidentally when he sat on her back trying to control her during an argument. The fight, Rathbun has said, began when Sobek became angry because she was injured in a driving stunt that went awry in the Angeles National Forest. And shortly before their fight, Rathbun has said, he and the 27-year-old model drank tequila and had consensual sex.

But during one round of questioning Monday, Rathbun acknowledged that the vehicle shown in a series of photographs--purportedly showing Sobek nude--may have been a new Oldsmobile, not the Lexus prototype sports vehicle he was assigned to shoot for an auto magazine.

Although defense attorney Mark Werksman promised to show that his client was merely confused on that point, Rathbun also admitted that three different notes relating to Sobek’s death failed to detail what he now says occurred--even though he wrote the letters at a time when he said he was contemplating suicide.

Most significant, perhaps, one of the notes names two other photographers who Rathbun said might be considered suspects in Sobek’s disappearance. Although Rathbun denied Monday that he was trying to divert attention from his role in Sobek’s death, that letter--like the other two--was never turned over to authorities even though Rathbun said that was one reason he wrote them.

During his first day of cross-examination, Rathbun generally was as poised as he had been during questioning by his own attorney. Although prosecutor Bowman consistently sought to rattle the defendant, advancing the theory that he sexually assaulted Sobek before killing her to conceal his crime, Rathbun calmly denied her barrage of accusations and scenarios.

Authorities say Sobek died by strangulation after being sodomized, possibly by Rathbun’s .45-caliber revolver, during a photo shoot on a dry lake bed in the forest.

During the prosecutor’s verbal jousting with Rathbun, the defendant again conceded that he had the opportunity--but not the courage--to seek help for Sobek after she was injured and to contact authorities. During questioning by his attorney and the prosecutor, Rathbun has insisted that he hid Sobek’s death because he did not think anyone would believe his story and that he expected to eventually be arrested.

And even as prosecutor Bowman suggested time and again that Rathbun killed Sobek because she had rejected his advances, the defendant insisted they had consensual sex.

“Linda Sobek found you repugnant, didn’t she?” Bowman asked Rathbun.

“I don’t know,” he said, calmly.

“She rejected you, didn’t she?” Bowman persisted.

“No,” Rathbun answered.

“You couldn’t take that, could you?” the prosecutor continued.

Rathbun denied Bowman’s claim, smiling slightly at the suggestion that he forced himself on Sobek.