Prosecutor Calls for Conviction of Rathbun

In a gambit based on what she portrayed as overwhelming circumstantial evidence, a Los Angeles County prosecutor told a jury Monday that if it concludes photographer Charles Rathbun sexually assaulted former model Linda Sobek, it must also find that he murdered her to conceal the crime.

“The only question you need to answer is whether or not Ms. Sobek was sexually assaulted,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary-Jean Bowman told the jury in Torrance as final arguments began in the month-old trial of Rathbun, 39, of Hollywood.

Arguing that there was no reason to believe the 27-year-old Hermosa Beach model would agree to be bound and sodomized in a way that prosecution experts described as brutal, Bowman insisted jurors did not need to resolve every unanswered question about what happened between Rathbun and Sobek last November on a dry lake bed in the Angeles National Forest.

“You may be saying, ‘I don’t know [about this detail or another].’ We may never know . . . but we know enough,” Bowman said. “We know there was no way she would consent. . . . We know Charles Rathbun killed her to keep her quiet.”

Almost from the moment he led authorities to Sobek’s shallow grave, they have alleged that Rathbun bound and murdered Sobek in what he has said was an accident during a photo shoot.

Initially, the photographer said he accidentally struck Sobek with a luxury sports vehicle while demonstrating driving stunts. Later, Rathbun said he never hit the model with the car but that she fell and was injured when he nearly struck her. And during his recent testimony, Rathbun said he accidentally asphyxiated Sobek during a subsequent struggle in the car.

But prosecutor Bowman characterized Rathbun’s account as a concoction riddled with half-truths and outright lies--among them, that he and the former Raiders cheerleader drank tequila and engaged in consensual sex only hours before she died.

In the days before his arrest, Bowman noted, Rathbun never went to authorities to tell them what he now says happened to Sobek. To the contrary, she said, Rathbun tried to distance himself from her disappearance during conversations with not only police but his own friends.

“What does that tell you?” Bowman asked, sarcastically. “Why would you lie?”

Although Rathbun testified that he panicked after Sobek’s death and never came forward because he did not think anyone would believe his story, Bowman argued that his actions amounted to a clear consciousness of guilt.

Not only did Rathbun not turn himself in, Bowman noted, but he threw away Sobek’s appointment book and other evidence--some of it recovered--that he and Sobek had been together. And, Bowman said, Rathbun went to a store to price shovels so he could bury Sobek. That testimony was based on a store employee who did not identify Rathbun but recalled a customer of his description who spent 10 to 15 minutes searching for a shovel the day Sobek died.

“This isn’t panic,” Bowman said, scoffing at Rathbun’s account. “This is calculating. This is covering your tracks.”

Bowman, who with co-prosecutor Steve Kay has spent nearly a year on the case, closed her remarks by telling jurors that they--like everyone--must live with the prospect that not every question in the case may be answered.

Defense attorney Mark Werksman will deliver his summation today.