Mother of Convicted Killer Testifies

The mother of a Lancaster man who could be sentenced to death for killing three members of an Arizona family testified at a pre-sentencing hearing Thursday that her son had been sexually abused by his father as a child and grew into a timid man, easily dominated by his wife and others.

“I can’t imagine him being too aggressive,” said Dorothy Sallows of her son, Frank Anderson, 50. “He’s never shown any of those traits.”

Anderson and Bobby Poyson, a 21-year-old drifter, have been convicted of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit murder and three counts of first-degree murder.

Anderson’s girlfriend, Kimberly Lane of Lancaster, who was 15 at the time of the killings, is awaiting trial, scheduled to begin May 18.

Sallows told Judge James Chavez that she had seen her former husband, Winfield, now deceased, molest his son when he was 8 years old. “When I walked in, it was oral sex,” she testified. “It just wasn’t reported in those days,” she said of her failure to notify law enforcement authorities.

She said her son had a nomadic life that prevented him from forming relationships. “Frankie attended 50 elementary schools, 50 different schools,” she testified. “We were just [moving] from one end of the country to another. We were constantly on the move.”

As a result, she said, her son grew into a timid man who was dominated for decades by his invalid wife, 18 years his senior.

Her testimony agreed with that of Frank Anderson’s stepdaughter, Jacqueline Hasan, at a March 18 pre-sentence hearing, and also with the portrayal of Anderson by his defense attorney during the trial as a follower and a coward, incapable of playing a lead role in violence, let alone murder.

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Hasan told the court she was 3 years old when her 35-year-old mother married the 17-year-old Anderson in May 1968. Her mother died last year, she said.

Anderson “had such an unhappy life, a hard life, that to make them feel good, he would do whatever people wanted,” Hasan said.

Anderson and Poyson were found guilty of the August 1996 killings of Robert Delahunt, 15, his mother, Leta Kagen, 37, and her boyfriend, Roland Wear, 50.

Anderson and Lane met when both lived at the Lancaster mobile home park he managed. According to the prosecution, they began a romantic relationship and Anderson convinced her he had Mafia ties in Illinois, where she could become a “Mafia goddaughter.”

According to testimony, Anderson left the park and his wife behind in July 1996, taking Lane with him. They got as far as Nevada, where they met Poyson, who was staying with the Kagens, and Anderson and Lane moved in with them.

Lane was accused of luring the teenage Delahunt into a kissing session so he could be killed and she and the two men could steal Wear’s pickup truck.

The boy died after a 45-minute struggle that began when his throat was slit and ended when rocks were used to pound a knife into his skull through his ear. Wear’s head was then crushed with a cinder-block and Kagen was shot in the head.

After the killings, the trio drove to Illinois and split up. Anderson was arrested Aug. 18 while driving Wear’s pickup truck. Lane and Poyson were arrested days later at a homeless shelter where they checked in as a married couple.

After her arrest, Lane gave birth to a child she said she believes was fathered by Anderson. The baby was given to her mother and stepfather, who live in Chino Valley, Ariz.

Hawkins is a correspondent who reported from Kingman. Vitucci is a Times staff writer.