Man Convicted of 1994 Sex Assaults, Burglaries

Nearly three years after he attacked his first victim, a 53-year-old former Ventura resident was convicted Tuesday of sexually assaulting two women and burglarizing a string of Ventura homes in a violent 1994 crime spree.

John Linnihan hunched over the defense table, shaking his head in disagreement as the jury found him guilty of 26 criminal charges, including assault with a deadly weapon, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery.

During his six-week trial, Linnihan took the stand in his own defense and for two days denied raping an 18-year-old woman and brutally beating a 65-year-old victim during a burglary on Christmas night three years ago.

But the jury simply didn’t believe his story.

“He is a very blustery, self-serving type of individual,” said juror Bob Grossman, 72, of Camarillo. “He tried to hustle us like he did all of his victims. We didn’t fall for it.”

Linnihan faces up to four consecutive life terms, plus an additional 50 years for a dozen other allegations in the case.

In filing the case, prosecutors applied the so-called one-strike law, which requires a defendant convicted of a violent sex crime accompanied by such acts as kidnapping or burglary to be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

The law went into effect on Nov. 30, 1994--four hours before Linnihan attacked his first victim, an 18-year-old Ventura woman. Prosecutors said he held her captive on a boat for six hours and raped her on Dec. 1.

Although the jury found Linnihan guilty of seven other charges in connection with the attack, including some sexual-assault charges, the panel deadlocked 11 to 1 on the rape charge.

Juror Ken Jordan said he was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Linnihan had sexual intercourse with the victim.

“I just couldn’t do it,” Jordan said outside the courtroom. “A person is innocent until proven guilty. I couldn’t get that out of my mind.”

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Jordan, a 64-year-old mail carrier from Ventura, explained that because the woman admitted taking narcotics several hours before the attack, he was uncertain whether she knew exactly what occurred.

“It was felt that because of her state of mind, that she might not have been sure,” Jordan said. “I had that doubt.”

Despite the deadlock, jury foreman Blair Oberg said the panel was able to work together and reach verdicts on the other charges in the case after 4 1/2 days of deliberation.

One of the trial’s more dramatic moments, Oberg said, occurred when the 65-year-old woman Linnihan attacked during a burglary identified him in court.

“She knew positively that that was the man who assaulted her,” said Oberg, a 35-year-old electrical engineer from Camarillo. “If there was any doubt about a mystery burglar, it went right out the window.”

In that attack, Linnihan was accused of breaking into the woman’s east Ventura home and confronting her after she returned from a Christmas party.

The woman was beaten to unconsciousness with brass knuckles, sexually assaulted and left tied with a phone cord. She was able to get help only after gnawing through the phone line, prosecutors said.

The woman recovered from the attack but still suffers from long-term effects such as partial color blindness. She has lost her sense of smell and taste, prosecutors said.

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Authorities alleged that in the days that preceded and followed the Dec. 25 attack, Linnihan broke into and ransacked a series of homes in east Ventura, stealing jewelry and other belongings.

In one case, a woman told authorities that she found the defendant sitting in her bathroom eating a piece of pizza. A latex glove dropped at the scene was later matched with gloves found in Linnihan’s trailer, prosecutors said.

Linnihan was arrested in Laughlin, Nev., on Dec. 30, 1994, in connection with the two Ventura sexual assaults and for an alleged third assault and rape of a 28-year-old Canadian woman in Arizona on Dec. 20. Ventura County prosecutors say Linnihan had lived in the city of Ventura about 20 years ago.

Prosecutors extradited Linnihan, and his case proceeded at a snail’s pace as the defendant fired his public defender, decided to represent himself, then hired another lawyer shortly before a trial was set to begin.

During his trial, which began in earnest Aug. 25, prosecutors presented evidence linking Linnihan to the various crime scenes.

Forensic analysis of semen stains found on the clothing of the last victim matched the defendant’s blood type.

Further DNA testing showed that genetic markers from blood stains were consistent with two individuals--the defendant and the victim.

“The likelihood of that happening in the community is 7.9%,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Miles Weiss said.

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More than 50 witnesses testified, including Linnihan.

“He denied that he was anyone who burgled or raped,” Weiss said.

Linnihan--a broad-shouldered, gray-haired man who wandered from state to state in a camper truck, authorities say--told the jury that he had consensual sex with the 18-year-old. He denied attacking the 65-year-old Ventura woman.

Foreman Oberg said the defendant was far from persuasive.

“He was Big John the Hustler,” Oberg said. “Not only in what he said but his demeanor on the witness stand. Even questioned by his own lawyer, his story changed.”

Linnihan is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 7.