Judge Signs Killer’s Death Order

A San Diego County judge signed a death warrant Wednesday for Kevin Cooper, setting Feb. 10, 2004, for the execution of the man who used a hatchet, knife and ice pick to murder three members of a Chino Hills family and their 11-year-old houseguest.

The only survivor of the attack, the then-8-year-old son whose throat was slashed, stared intently at Superior Court Judge William H. Kennedy as the judge read from the warrant he had signed: “I now command you, warden at San Quentin, to carry into effect this judgment ... and to put to death Kevin Cooper in a manner and means set by the law.”

Cooper had been serving time for burglary when he escaped from a minimum-security area of the state prison in Chino on June 2, 1983.

He hid in a small vacant house near the family’s home until, on the night of June 4, he committed what the California Supreme Court called a “nocturnal massacre,” killing Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter Jessica and houseguest Christopher Hughes.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Joshua Ryen, the son who survived, kissed Christopher’s mother on the cheek as they hugged.

“I’m glad you’ve grown up so nicely,” MaryAnn Hughes said. “Your parents would be proud of you.”

Christopher’s father, Bill Hughes, told reporters, “We’re finally getting to some form of conclusion, although I’m still wary of how many more hoops we’ll have to jump through.”

Hughes said it had been proved that Cooper had committed the murders. “People need to pay for their acts, and he has nothing to give but his life.”

Cooper, 45, would be the 11th man executed in California since voters reinstated the death penalty in 1978. The last execution was that of Stephen Wayne Anderson, 48, on Jan. 28, 2002.

Cooper has appealed unsuccessfully to the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court since his conviction in 1985.

He was the first state prisoner to request post-conviction DNA testing, but his DNA was found in a blood drop in the Ryens’ home, in saliva on two cigarette butts in the family’s stolen station wagon, and in a bloody T-shirt found on the side of a road leading from the home.

The attorney who represented Cooper in court Wednesday, William McGuigan, said a petition for clemency was “automatic.” He said defense attorneys also wanted to appeal to the state Supreme Court or U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the accuracy of the DNA testing and Cooper’s mental competence.

Holly Wilkens, a state supervising deputy attorney general assigned to Cooper’s case, said, “We expect nonstop efforts to get this date set aside.... They’ll throw everything but the kitchen sink at us.”