Prosecution in Rathbun Trial Rests

Prosecutors rested their case Thursday against accused killer Charles Rathbun with testimony challenging his claim that he accidentally asphyxiated model Linda Sobek while trying to subdue her during an argument in the back seat of a vehicle he was photographing.

With testimony winding to a close after 18 days, sheriff’s homicide Sgt. Patrick Robinson told a Torrance courtroom that he and a criminalist examined a Lexus sport utility vehicle virtually identical to the one slightly damaged in a photo shoot involving Rathbun and Sobek last November.

The examination, Robinson said, showed that the 27-year-old model could not have damaged the vehicle’s interior by kicking in the manner described by Rathbun because the point of impact was below the rear seat and inaccessible to her feet.

“To produce the dent . . . I don’t see how that could be done,” Robinson told Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Kay, who also presented photographs illustrating the detective’s testimony.

In previous testimony, Rathbun, 39, claimed that he asphyxiated Sobek by accident during a struggle that began because she was angry about being slightly injured in a driving mishap. Previous photos of the car’s interior clearly show two dents inside the right rear door.

But those photos, authorities noted, were taken after the car’s rear seat was removed as evidence by homicide investigators.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Mark Werksman, Robinson acknowledged that he never measured the seats of the vehicle involved in the case against those of the Lexus photographed for the comparison.

But Robinson testified that the dimensions of the vehicles should have been identical. And, he insisted, Sobek could not have damaged the car as Rathbun claimed.

“I don’t think I could make that dent with my fist,” said Robinson, who led the sheriff’s investigation.

Earlier, another prosecution witness, Dr. Marianne Gausche, echoed the testimony of a sheriff’s criminalist by saying that autopsy photographs of Sobek do not match those of a nude torso that Rathbun claimed also was the former Hermosa Beach model.

“They’re not the same person,” said Gausche, director of emergency medical services at Harbor UCLA Medical Center and a lecturer on sexual assault cases.

Testimony in the trial is expected to conclude today with the final defense witnesses including Rathbun’s brother, who said he found--and developed--the film allegedly containing nude photos of Sobek months after his brother was arrested for her murder. Authorities have said they are investigating attorney Robert Rathbun, of Virginia, because of doubts about the authenticity of the photographs and the manner in which he said they were found.