Murder Case Appeal, Film Stir Tension

Five years after a fight over marijuana left the 16-year-old son of a police officer dead, advocates of the Conejo Valley men sentenced to life terms for his death are escalating their campaign on two fronts: in a court of law and in the court of public opinion.

Last week, lawyers for Brandon Hein, Tony Miliotti and brothers Jason and Micah Holland--all in their early 20s now--took their cases before the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. They asked for new trials or greatly reduced sentences in the death of Jimmy Farris, arguing that the terms imposed are cruel and unusual and that prosecutors failed to prove elements necessary to uphold the sentences.

They also contended that prosecutors made improper comments that swayed the jury enough to warrant a new trial, including assertions that defense lawyers were liars and that the defendants had ties to a suburban gang called the Gumbys.

Also last week, parents on both sides of the case attended the first public screening of “Reckless Indifference,” a documentary critical of the way the legal system handled the case. The film’s director, William Gazecki, argues that the defendants--three of whom have no possibility of parole--received unfairly harsh sentences for an accidental death they could not have foreseen.

Inevitably, the appeals and the film’s release have stirred up grief and tensions between two camps of parents.

There are the defendants’ relatives, many of whom believe Jimmy Farris’ parents could help get the young men out of prison if they would put aside their grief and look at the situation rationally.

Then there are Jimmy’s parents, Judie and Jim Farris, who say they are tired of being painted as the bad guys when they, in fact, are the victims. They recoil at implications that their son was into drugs like the other teens or that Jim Farris’ career as an LAPD police officer influenced the prosecutors, judge or jury.

“I am not going to say whether it’s justice or not, because my son is dead,” Judie Farris said last week of the defendants’ sentences. This mutual bitterness was exposed at Tuesday night’s screening of the documentary at USC’s Annenberg Auditorium.

The 90-minute film shows reenactments of the events leading up to Jimmy’s death, spliced with a prison interview with Hein, clips from the trial and interviews with Judie and Jim Farris and several of the defendants’ relatives.

It also features Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who calls the sentences “an outrage. I believe it’s cruel and unusual punishment.”

During a question-and-answer segment after the screening, Judie Farris, dressed in black, repeatedly referred to the “criminals’ families.”

Pat Kraetsch, Hein’s mother, dressed in a pastel turtleneck, grew frustrated from her seat in the audience. “I have a name,” she called out. “I am not ‘a criminal’s family.’ ”

Within minutes, both women’s anger cracked into hot tears. Farris told Kraetsch that her son and the others could have avoided their stiff sentences if they had pleaded guilty to lesser charges, as did a fifth teen who had been waiting in his truck as the fight took place.

“Brandon didn’t take a plea because he didn’t do it,” Kraetsch said, weeping. “My son was in a fistfight.”

Jimmy didn’t die of punches, but of a stab wound to the heart. Jason Holland admitted pulling out a pocket knife during a melee that lasted less than a minute. He said he used the knife to protect his younger brother.

He was the only defendant who admitted wielding a knife, and defense lawyers maintain that the others did not know about the knife until after the fight, which took place in the backyard fort of Jimmy’s friend, Mike McLoren. The defense also maintained that Miliotti never took part in the fight, but watched from the doorway of the fort.

What enabled prosecutors to go after all the young men for murder is a legal provision known as the felony murder rule. It says people can be found guilty of murder if they take part in another crime that leads to someone’s death. Prosecutors argued that the fatal fight broke out when the defendants stormed the fort and tried to steal marijuana from McLoren, an acquaintance of some of the boys in the group. McLoren also was stabbed in the fight but survived. He was not prosecuted.

Micah Holland, who was 15 at the time, was sentenced to 25 years to life. The other boys--Jason Holland, 18 at the time; Miliotti, 17 at the time; and Hein, 18 at the time--all received life sentences without possibility of parole.

In contrast to the film screening earlier in the week, Thursday’s appellate court hearing was peaceful. The defendants’ families, lawyers and a handful of friends, including Jason Holland’s girlfriend, packed the chambers, hugging and praying during a break.

While the defendants’ case has become a cause for many--from Harvard’s Dershowitz to outgoing state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) to Rolling Stone magazine--the convicts’ families know that none of that means much unless a court rules in their favor.

It could be March before the Court of Appeal in Los Angeles rules. But some of the questions asked by two of the three justices during Thursday’s hearing gave the defendants’ families hope. “It’s the best I’ve felt in five years,” said Miliotti’s uncle, Jeff Ladin.

Justice Norvell Fred Woods spoke of “apples, oranges, grapes and grapefruit,” asking lawyers if the defendants with lesser roles in the fight should have had different sentences.

L.A. Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Stoever, a special appointee to the appellate panel, told defense lawyers, “We’re asking the question: ‘Are our hands tied?’ ” He drew them a road map for what legal arguments and case law they might focus on to convince him otherwise. He suggested they discuss the defendants’ maturity at the time of the fight and whether, individually, they could have foreseen that their actions might prove fatal.

The Farrises did not attend the court hearing. But Gazecki was there, watching as the newest chapter of the case unfolded. “The idea of justice is very mercurial,” he said. “I think it’s pretty clear at this point that the story is not resolved.”