Authorities Again Search Home of Bruce Koklich
Investigators served a search warrant Monday night on the Lakewood home of Bruce Koklich, who faces a second trial next month on charges that he murdered his wife, the daughter of the late state Sen. Paul Carpenter.
Koklich, 44, who is free on $1-million bail, allowed sheriff’s homicide and crime-scene investigators inside the home on Fairway Drive, Lt. Ray Peavy said.
They planned to look for potential evidence in the case, Peavy said, but he did not specify what.
A judge declared a mistrial in March after a jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of a guilty verdict on charges that Koklich killed Jana Carpenter-Koklich, 41. Her body has never been found.
Some jury members said after the trial that they were bothered by the lack of physical evidence.
Prosecutors contended that Koklich, a Long Beach real estate businessman, killed his wife when she returned home from a concert one night in August 2001. The couple had been having marital problems, according to prosecutors. Koklich stood to profit from a life insurance policy, they said.
Among items that prosecutors could not produce for the jury were the sheets that prosecutors say were on the bed that night.
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