Defendant Convicted Again in 1980 Murders

Former death row inmate Kenneth Crandell, working persistently for the last two decades, nearly appealed his way to freedom.

His death sentence became a life term. He eventually was granted a new trial. Over the years, witnesses died and evidence against him was lost.

But on Monday, Crandell was found guilty once again of the first-degree murders of Ernest and Edward Pruett, the North Hollywood father and son who were shot in the head in their home in 1980. Crandell also was convicted of assaulting and kidnapping Ernest Pruett’s daughter, Marie, who was 15 at the time.

As Crandell, now 66, was led away from the courtroom in a wheelchair, the surviving members of the Pruett family said they hoped that this time, the man they once considered a family friend would be put away for good.

“I’m thrilled with the verdict,” said Marie Pruett Tyler, now a 34-year-old mother of three who lives on the East Coast. “I can sleep a little sounder now. My father and brother can rest in peace, finally.”

Because the crime occurred so long ago, the case had presented the prosecution with formidable challenges. Not only had a key witness--a coroner’s investigator who performed a critical crime scene test--died, but all of the physical evidence was inadvertently destroyed by a court clerk in the mid-1990s.

Absent from this trial were the murder weapon, blood samples, a gunshot residue test and other physical evidence found at the scene of the crime. Witnesses still living had to recall events that occurred nearly two decades ago.

Crandell was a boarder living with 69-year-old Ernest Pruett, a financially struggling widower, and his three children. Last week, Crandell testified that he shot Pruett in self-defense after Pruett, in a drunken rage, shot and killed 14-year-old Edward.

The jury of seven women and five men, who deliberated for about a day and a half, did not buy Crandell’s story.

“It was pretty clear cut,” said juror Rich Robles of Van Nuys.

Witnesses in the trial testified that Pruett loved his children and would never have harmed Edward. Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D’Agostino argued that no gunshot residue was found on Pruett’s hands.

“The gunshot residue test was very important,” said juror Maryann Lapointe of West Hills. “At that point, we decided that the father did not kill the son.”

Other witnesses testified that father and son were shot with a gun held behind a pillow, a deliberate attempt to silence the weapon that makes the drunken rage and self-defense scenarios unlikely.

Because there are special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, Crandell faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole, D’Agostino said.

While the verdict was read, Crandell--who wore a hospital gown and had an intravenous needle taped to his arm--folded his hands and looked down.

Afterward, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sandy R. Kriegler explained to jurors the case history.

During Crandell’s first trial in 1982, he represented himself.

The presiding judge at the time said, “Mr. Crandell did a job which absolutely astounded me,” but he was convicted.

The state Supreme Court reversed his death sentence in 1988, and prosecutors agreed that Crandell would serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

In 1996, a federal court found that the deputy public defender who originally represented Crandell was incompetent because he failed to communicate with his client for two months. Crandell asked the trial court to appoint alternative counsel but his requests were denied.

That decision was affirmed by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Crandell should “not have been forced to choose between incompetent counsel and no counsel at all,” the federal panel held in 1998 when it remanded the case for retrial.

Crandell is scheduled to be sentenced May 1, the day Edward Pruett would have turned 34. “I really hope this is it and he doesn’t have a chance at another trial,” Tyler said. “This hopefully brought closure to all of us.”