Rathbun Again Insists Death Was Accidental

During his fourth day of testimony, accused killer Charles Rathbun insisted Tuesday that the death of model Linda Sobek was an accident that occurred following consensual sex while the two were on a photo shoot.

After the photographer completed testifying and the nine-man, three-woman jury had left, the victim’s mother, Elaine Sobek, leaped up and glared at the defendant. She appeared ready to say something, but her son pushed her from the courtroom.

Earlier, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary-Jean Bowman questioned Rathbun about injuries the 27-year-old Hermosa Beach woman suffered last Nov. 16.

The prosecution alleges that Rathbun, 39, lured Sobek to a remote area on the pretext of a photo assignment, fully intending to rape and kill her.

According to the prosecution, he sodomized her with a .45-caliber handgun. Rathbun insists he did not have a gun with him that day.

When Bowman displayed coroner’s photographs of injuries to Sobek’s body, Rathbun said his fingers caused the injuries, not a gun.

“Is it true [that] when she started to reject your sexual advances, you forced yourself on her and then had to kill her?”

No, Rathbun said.

Under cross-examination, defense attorney Mark Werksman asked Rathbun why he never told police about having sex with Sobek.

“A couple of reasons,” Rathbun said. “First, it was pretty embarrassing . . . but primarily [the sex] had nothing to do with how she died.”

Rathbun said he twice tried to commit suicide in the days following Sobek’s death.

Sobek’s mother, who claims her daughter would never have been intimate with Rathbun and repeatedly has called him a liar, leaped from her seat in disgust and rushed from the courtroom, as she has done repeatedly during the trial. She returned a short time later.

After Rathbun concluded his testimony, the jury left the courtroom. The victim’s mother jumped up again and glowered at Rathbun, who was in the witness box.

She opened her mouth, shook her head and seemed to be about to say something when her son escorted her from the courtroom.

Rathbun initially told friends and police that Sobek was killed when he accidentally hit her with a vehicle he had checked out for the shoot.

But on the witness stand last week he said Sobek became enraged after he accidentally knocked her down with the car while performing a driving stunt. He said he picked her up and placed her inside the luxury sport utility vehicle, where she began cursing and kicking, denting one of the car’s inside doors.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 200-pound defendant said he accidentally asphyxiated her while sitting in the middle of the 5-foot-3-inch, 110-pound model’s back, trying to get her to calm down.