Prosecutor Says Sobek’s Death Was Murder

The photographer accused of killing model Linda Sobek set out to seduce her with tequila and marijuana, brutally sodomized her as she struggled, then took her life, a prosecutor said in closing arguments Monday.

Defendant Charles Rathbun repeatedly lied while telling his version of how Sobek died, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary-Jean Bowman said, reciting a list of statements contradicted by witnesses.

Bowman said some details of the death may always remain unclear: exactly when Sobek died and whether she was raped with a Colt .45 or something else. But she said one thing was certain: The damage to internal tissues and the hemorrhaging Sobek suffered was too great for her to have consented to the act, as Rathbun testified.

That forcible rape makes Sobek’s death a murder under California law, even if Rathbun inadvertently killed her later, as he testified, Bowman said.

“It really is a simple case,” Bowman said. “It comes down to one thing. The anal penetration was not consensual.”

Rathbun, 39, is charged with murder and forcible rape by a foreign object, a special circumstance that could lead to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors could have sought the death penalty but decided against it.

Sobek, 27, left her Hermosa Beach apartment Nov. 16, 1995, for a freelance modeling assignment and never returned. Rathbun later led searchers to her body, buried in a rocky grave in the Angeles National Forest.

The coroner said she was asphyxiated by pressure on her neck and body, as if someone had crushed her. Taking the stand during his six-week trial, Rathbun said she became enraged when he nearly hit her with the Lexus sport-utility vehicle that he was assigned to photograph.

Rathbun said Sobek died when he sat on her during their drunken argument in the back seat of the car. He said he panicked and buried her body, but never intended to kill her.

Bowman told the jury that a black bag containing tequila, marijuana, rope, tape and an Ace bandage demonstrated that Rathbun “had intent to take her to an area and see what he could do.”

Most important, she said, were thin ligature marks on Sobek’s ankles. Not only the two prosecution doctors, but also a physician expert called in Rathbun’s defense, testified that the marks showed the intent had been to pull Sobek’s legs apart, the prosecutor said.

Rathbun had testified that he had bound her legs together with the Ace bandage while trying to subdue her during their fight, a contention Bowman said was absurd and unsubstantiated by the physical evidence.

Bowman finished her closing arguments Monday and Superior Court Judge Donald Pitts sent the jurors home for the day.

Rathbun’s defense lawyer, Mark Werksman, was scheduled to present his closing arguments today.