Man Guilty of 1st-Degree Murder in 1995 Killing

A Ventura County jury convicted Kenneth McKinzie of first-degree murder Tuesday for the beating and strangulation of an elderly Oxnard woman three years ago--rejecting the 39-year-old defendant’s claims that an Oxnard teenager was the real killer.

Deliberating just two days, the panel of three men and nine women found McKinzie guilty of seven related charges in the slaying of Ruth Avril, 73, including kidnapping, burglary and carjacking.

McKinzie, an Oxnard resident who has a lengthy criminal record, shook his head in disbelief as the guilty verdicts were read to a half-empty courtroom. His mother, Betty McKinzie, was his only relative in court. She stared vacantly at the jury box as, one by one, the jurors confirmed their decisions.

Next week, the same panel will begin to hear evidence about whether McKinzie should be executed for the December 1995 murder, or sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The penalty phase is expected to last two days.

Jurors began deliberations Friday. They reached some findings that day, but took more time to decide the most serious charge. By late Friday afternoon, they had requested the court reporter reread the defendant’s testimony and that of two key witnesses.

But after 3 1/2 hours of listening to McKinzie’s statements for a second time Monday, the panel declined to hear the testimony of the other witnesses. At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, they announced they had reached a verdict.

After the decision was announced and the panel excused, McKinzie turned to the judge and requested two phone calls so he could talk to his family about what happened.

“I need a court order for a phone call,” he pleaded, turning around in his chair to face his mother as Judge Vincent O’Neill Jr. granted the request.

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Willard Wiksell said he believed McKinzie’s story cast reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case.

“He was hoping they’d believe him, and obviously they didn’t,” Wiksell said. “The task now is to keep Mr. McKinzie alive.”

During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence to show that McKinzie had attacked Avril, who lived alone, in the garage of her south Oxnard apartment during an attempted robbery Dec. 22, 1995. When Avril fought back, they said, McKinzie beat her with his fists and slammed her head against the trunk of her car.

Prosecutors said he then put Avril in the trunk of her Ford Taurus and drove to a remote agricultural area of Oxnard where he strangled her and threw her body in an irrigation ditch. Avril’s body was found by two surfers the next morning.

The case went unsolved for more than a year, until an anonymous tip led detectives to Theresa Johnson, who told them McKinzie had confessed to the killing while smoking rock cocaine with her hours after the slaying.

During the trial, McKinzie blurted out, “Tell the truth, Theresa!” as the woman testified that he came to her home with swollen hands and a stack of Avril’s credit and bank cards the night of the slaying. Taking the stand in his own defense, McKinzie admitted using the cards to withdraw $440 from Avril’s bank account to buy drugs; he denied killing Avril.

He told the jury that Donald “Little Tommy” Thomas, a neighborhood teen who was known to carry Avril’s groceries home for her, killed the woman. McKinzie said he bought allegedly stolen property from Thomas, who was 18 at the time, and found out about the slaying only when Thomas warned him not to take Avril’s belongings to a pawn shop.

McKinzie testified that Thomas told him that Avril “got beat” during a burglary and that her body was dumped in Malibu. Wiksell also presented evidence to show that Thomas’ handprint was lifted by police from the stereo cabinet inside Avril’s apartment.

But in closing arguments, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn told jurors that Thomas knew Avril “like a grandmother,” and could easily have left his handprint in her home. He also cited the testimony of Johnson and a second witness, who testified that McKinzie admitted the slaying.

McKinzie allegedly told friends that he needed money for gifts for his children for Christmas, and only intended to rob Avril, but that things got out of hand.

In addition to first-degree murder, the jury found that McKinzie killed Avril during a robbery and a burglary--special allegations that when paired with a first-degree finding advance the case to the penalty phase.

The jury also found that McKinzie knew or should have known that the victim was 65 years old or older, which would have increased his prison sentence if the case had not ended in a first-degree murder conviction.

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Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this story.