Killer’s Denial Was Lie, His Attorney Says

In a dramatic twist during Kenneth McKinzie’s penalty retrial Wednesday, defense attorney Willard Wiksell told jurors his client had lied to a previous jury when he denied killing a 73-year-old Oxnard woman 3 1/2 years ago.

As Wiksell spoke, the defendant began sobbing and buried his face in his hand.

McKinzie, 39, was convicted of murder in October but the jury was unable to decide whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Throughout the trial and first penalty phase, McKinzie maintained his innocence, telling jurors he had never laid a hand on Ruth Avril--much less hitting her 27 times and strangling her.

But two weeks ago, with jury selection underway in the penalty retrial, Wiksell said his client turned to him in court and whispered the truth.

“He said, ‘I have this guilt that is overwhelming,’ ” Wiksell told the jury in his opening statement. “He said, ‘I lied to you, I lied to the jury, I lied to my mother and I can’t take it any more.’ ”

Wiksell said McKinzie will take the witness stand next week and explain how the killing, which Wiksell called accidental, occurred. He added that his client is prepared to accept whatever punishment the jury backs.

“He is not asking for a break,” the lawyer said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn told jurors in his opening remarks that McKinzie admitted 11 days ago to killing Avril during a conversation with a fellow jail inmate.

Glynn said the discussion was overheard by deputies assigned to the jail and that McKinzie, a four-time felon, begged them not to tell prosecutors because it would “screw up” his case.

The prosecutor’s opening statement preceded the mea culpa offered by the defense.

Glynn summarized the evidence presented during McKinzie’s murder trial last year and told jurors they would hear some of the same testimony. McKinzie was convicted of murder with special circumstances, robbery, burglary and carjacking.

Glynn also said he would argue at the end of the second penalty trial, expected to last about two weeks, that the viciousness of the slaying, paired with McKinzie’s criminal history, warrants a death sentence.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the only appropriate punishment for Kenneth McKinzie is the death penalty,” he said.

During opening statements, McKinzie’s mother and sister sat side by side in court, occasionally dabbing tears with tissue. Both women testified during the last penalty phase, which ended with the jury hung 11-1 in favor of death.

After a mistrial was declared, several jurors said they believed McKinzie deserved execution because of the way Avril had died. They said they couldn’t get the graphic crime scene photos of her beaten body out of their minds.

On Wednesday, Glynn began his opening statement by showing the jury those same photos.

He described how Avril, who lived alone in south Oxnard, was attacked in her garage on Dec. 21, 1995, and beaten on the head, neck, chest and limbs.

He told jurors that during a struggle the defendant stuffed Avril into the trunk of her car and drove to an isolated area along Arnold Road in Oxnard, where he choked her and tossed the body into a ditch.

Glynn said McKinzie then returned and ransacked Avril’s apartment, stealing a stereo, VCR, camera and Christmas presents as well as the victim’s credit and ATM cards, which he had a friend use to obtain money for drugs.

While smoking cocaine purchased with that cash, the prosecutor said, McKinzie admitted he had killed “some nice old lady” who lived across the alley from his girlfriend’s apartment.

“He said he took the lady out to a back road and threw her in a ditch,” Glynn said, adding the defendant later admitted the crime to another friend.

Glynn told jurors McKinzie knew Avril, and had helped her carry a Christmas tree into her second-story apartment just a day before her slaying. It was at that time, he suggested, that McKinzie started plotting a robbery.

Wiksell admitted in his opening statement that McKinzie had returned the night of the killing to rob Avril. But he said the defendant had not formed a concrete plan of how he intended to carry out the robbery.

So when Avril came downstairs to turn off a light in her garage, McKinzie jumped her, Wiksell said. During a scuffle, the attorney said, Avril bit McKinzie on the hand and he hit her. When she fell unconscious to the floor, McKinzie panicked, Wiksell said.

“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Wiksell said, adding that his client told him he had placed Avril in the trunk of the car and began to drive “somewhat aimlessly” around Oxnard.

When he stopped at Arnold Road, the lawyer said, McKinzie opened the trunk to find Avril awake and conscious. According to McKinzie’s account, she tripped and fell into the ditch.

Although McKinzie still maintains he did not strangle Avril, he told Wiksell he knows he caused her death.

“He can’t change what he did,” Wiksell concluded. “He can only accept responsibility.”

Testimony is scheduled to resume today in Ventura County Superior Court.