Schultz Not Evil, Lawyer Maintains

Saying his client is flawed but not evil, a defense attorney for convicted killer Michael Schultz urged a Ventura County jury Monday to spare his life.

“He was the youngest child of three in a family marked by violence, mental illness, alcohol and drugs,” Deputy Public Defender Steve Lipson said Monday in an opening statement, kicking off the penalty phase of the trial. “It’s no surprise he turned to dope and rage.”

Jurors will recommend either the death penalty or life in prison without parole for Schultz, 33, convicted Jan. 31 of raping and strangling a Port Hueneme woman after he crept into her condominium on Aug. 5, 1993.

Schultz’s troubled upbringing is “not an excuse for what he did,” Lipson told jurors, “but it may help you better understand how he could have raped and murdered someone.”

Prosecutors, however, say Schultz is a cold-blooded killer who deserves to die for the slaying of 44-year-old Cynthia Burger, a car-dealership manager who was asleep in bed when Schultz entered her condo. Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon said he will present evidence showing Schultz has a history of violent behavior.

That evidence began Monday with testimony from Ventura Police Sgt. Thomas Avery, who arrested Schultz in 1996 for breaking into vending machines on a satellite campus of Cal State Northridge in Ventura.

Avery, 6 feet 6 and 225 pounds, detailed a violent struggle involving himself, Schultz and another Ventura police officer that ended after a tumble down a flight of concrete stairs, use of pepper spray and help from five additional officers.

Avery also described holding Schultz at gunpoint, demanding that he let go of a hammer and crowbar he was using to rob the vending machines. That testimony prompted one of Burger’s relatives, who was observing the trial, to comment that Avery should have shot Schultz.

Superior Court Judge Donald Coleman asked jurors if they had heard the comment, and they said they had not.

The relative, who said he was Burger’s brother-in-law, apologized to the court and defense attorneys.