Jury in Retrial of 1983 Triple-Murder Case Recommends Death

For the second time in 17 years, a Van Nuys jury recommended execution for Robert Bloom Jr., who murdered his father, stepmother and 8-year-old stepsister.

Bloom looked dazed but otherwise showed little emotion Thursday as he heard the verdict that concluded his three-month retrial, during which he represented himself after he fired his court-appointed attorneys and dropped his insanity plea.

Prosecutors called Bloom, 37, a “sociopath” who deserved to die for the grisly 1982 Sun Valley triple-murder he committed at age 18.

“He’s evil,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dmitry Gorin, recounting how Bloom once stabbed another inmate in the neck and threatened prosecutors during his retrial. “He’s a complete danger to society.”

But Bloom’s mother lamented the verdict and said he deserved sympathy. “My son’s mentally ill and should be in a mental hospital, not a gas chamber,” said Melanie Bostic. “I’ve seen him in trances. He’ll get the shakes. He has double personalities.”

At one point, a few of the jurors actually did seem sympathetic toward him.

In the first phase of the retrial, they unanimously found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Robert Bloom Sr. and the second-degree murders of his stepmother, Josephine Lou Bloom, and stepsister, Sandra Hughes.

But in the second phase, in which they deliberated Bloom’s insanity defense, jurors were split 9 to 3 in favor of sanity. A hung jury appeared certain--which would have led to a new jury being seated for the sanity phase--but Bloom made a calculated decision to drop his insanity plea and continue to the penalty phase with the judge and jury he had.

Bloom came to regret his strategy. Last week in a phone interview from jail, Bloom said he was disappointed that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp would not act more like TV’s “Judge Judy.” He wanted his lawyers back, but Schempp wouldn’t allow it.

Schempp declared that she found Bloom--who at one point recited to the jury from memory every U.S. president from Washington to Clinton, including the years each served--articulate, highly intelligent and competent to represent himself.

After Bloom’s first trial in 1983, he was sentenced to death, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in 1997 overturned the verdict because his first lawyer mounted an inadequate psychiatric defense.

During this year’s retrial, Bloom’s lawyers argued he had been severely abused by his father and was insane during the murders.

After he fired his attorneys, Bloom told jurors he had been an award-winning high school mock-trial attorney, that his insanity plea was hogwash and that he considered himself better than the new district attorney, Steve Cooley. He zealously cross-examined witnesses, subpoenaed a judge, used legal terminology and made frequent objections, some of which Schempp sustained.

Bloom told jurors he felt no remorse for killing his father and called the deaths of his stepmother and stepsister a “necessary evil.” The next time around, he said, he would be “a better killer.”

“It was disturbing to listen to,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels. “He’s totally twisted.”

Josephine Lou Bloom’s uncle, Charles A. Simpson, said his family was heartened that jurors finally saw Bloom for what he was--an intelligent, cold-blooded killer. “We finally have closure,” Simpson said.

Bloom will be sentenced Jan. 19.