Real-Life Death and Its Grim Fascination

Murder trials fascinate us, probably not always for good reasons. Cops say every murder has a motive and method--twin trails that can lead into the deeper, darker part of the forest of human behavior.

From the sanctity of the courtroom, we can safely look in on those charged with acting in the most extreme of ways and ask ourselves whether and why they did what is alleged.

Two Orange County murder trials, different as night and day in characters and detail, are playing out this week at opposite ends of the long hallway on the 11th floor of the county courthouse. Like dramas unwinding on adjacent reels, the two courtrooms sagas attest that reality always trumps fiction.

One case is set against the glitzy backdrop and fast-lane life of Newport Beach’s party and beach crowd.

The other is rooted in an unglamorous Buena Park neighborhood, where a day that was just like any other in October of 1999 turned into a tragedy that sparked a community debate over who deserves what punishments.

In Judge Frank Fasel’s court, jurors must decide if the nice-looking young man at the defense table bludgeoned his wife at sea, tied her up, weighted her down and threw the body over the side of a boat he’d rented for their wedding anniversary outing. Complicating the jury’s task is that investigators never found the body and built the case around the man’s alleged detailing of the crime to a subsequent girlfriend.

At the other end of the 11th floor in Judge John Ryan’s court, jurors have a totally different but equally sobering task.

There they know that Peter Solomona, a middle-aged family man living in a quiet Buena Park neighborhood, shot and killed 17-year-old Brandon Ketsdever 14 months ago. He shot him in the street outside his house after confronting the boy and two friends, who had swiped an inexpensive Halloween decoration from his house.

What the jurors must decide is whether Solomona, although angered by the theft, only meant to scare the boys when he walked up to them in their car outside his house. His attorney says the .357 magnum that Solomona pointed at Ketsdever discharged accidentally.

The first two days of the trials have provided high drama. In both, family members or friends have either left the courtrooms in tears or been seen sobbing in chairs in the hallway.

Tears Still Falling

In the Solomona trial, young Frank Nelson, who was sitting in the passenger side next to Ketsdever when he was shot, broke down late Monday when asked what happened after Solomona approached the car. As Nelson sat on the witness stand crying into tissues, Judge John Ryan called a recess.

On Tuesday, witnesses Clinton and Andie Kerbaugh, who were in a car only a few feet away when Solomona approached Ketsdever’s car, testified. Clinton Kerbaugh said Ketsdever sat speechless and apparently mortified as he saw that Solomona had a gun pointed at him. Other witnesses testified that, after the shooting, Solomona appeared to be in shock at what had just happened.

By Tuesday afternoon, actress and model Tina New was in her second day of testimony at the Bechler trial, amid indications she may be on the stand for several days. Her recitation of Bechler’s “confession” to her in 1999--two years after his wife’s disappearance--dominated the trial’s first two days.

Did Eric Bechler connive to kill his wife Pegye for money and fake his sorrow? Jurors heard this week that Bechler, in the company of New, rather quickly resumed the life of a Newport Beach playboy.

Her depiction of their relationship was, at times, dizzying. Attracted to him on sight, she moved into his Newport Beach home the night they met--about three months after Pegye Bechler’s disappearance--”and I never really left.”

She then described a volatile relationship during which the two went on cruises and mini-vacations, fought, made up, partied, took drugs, and--not infrequently--discussed Pegye Bechler’s disappearance. In the midst of that, New signed a restraining order against Bechler and checked herself into drug rehab. She later sued former basketball star Dennis Rodman for allegedly assaulting her in his Newport Beach home.

In the end, New’s credibility (she has yet to be cross-examined by crack defense lawyer John Barnett) may determine Bechler’s fate. Bechler also may testify.

Solomona, a 49-year-old grandfather, is expected to take the stand later this week.

On trial for their freedom, Bechler and Solomona will challenge the jurors’ powers of discernment and sense of human nature.

Without a body to prove his guilt, will a jury believe Bechler did such a horrendous thing?

Conversely, with a dead teenager as lasting evidence, will a jury believe Solomona when he says his righteous anger was never supposed to lead to such a terrible ending?

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.