Death Sentence Given in Kidnap-Murder

A parolee convicted of kidnapping and killing a Santa Clarita father of three was formally sentenced to death Thursday in the latest episode of a nearly 5-year-old case in which the same sentence was thrown out by one judge and reinstated by an appeals court.

“Even though justice was very late in coming, we are delighted we prevailed,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino, who prosecuted the case against Scott Forrest Collins, 25.

The sentence by Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab was largely a formality because the death sentence had been reinstated by an appeals court in July, said Bruce Hill, the attorney who represented Collins. Hill added that the door is now open for the automatic appeals process.

Fred D. Rose, 41, was kidnapped at gunpoint as he left his Lancaster office in January 1992. He was later shot to death in North Hollywood by an assailant who made him withdraw cash from an automated teller machine prior to the slaying.

A jury convicted Collins of the crime and recommended the death penalty in November 1992. But Judge Leon Kaplan overturned the sentence seven months later, saying the jurors had improperly used protractors and string to reenact the crime and that one juror had attempted a reenactment on his home computer.

Facing criticism from Rose’s family and the community, Kaplan removed himself from the case as the prosecution appealed the overturned sentence.

On Thursday, about 18 of Rose’s family members showed up for the resentencing, D’Agostino said.

“They waited over three years to hear those words,” she said.