Death Sentence Urged for Woman’s Killer

Ventura County prosecutors asked a jury Friday to send convicted rapist-murderer Michael Schultz to his death, imploring jurors to render justice for the victim’s family.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Frawley described Schultz as a callous criminal who choked the life out of car dealership manager Cynthia Burger in 1993, then dumped her body in a bathtub filled with household chemicals to conceal a rape at her Port Hueneme condominium.

“Michael Schultz doesn’t deserve your sympathy,” said Frawley, who mocked a defense theory that Schultz was a product of his upbringing.

In their summations to the jury, Deputy Public Defenders Steve Lipson and Brian Vogel argued that Schultz, a 34-year-old high school dropout and former mechanic, was raised in a household where love and morality were in short supply.

Instead, Schultz felt the belt of an abusive drug-addicted father who exposed him to cocaine and methamphetamine at the age of 9, the lawyers argued. They urged jurors to consider those influences from Schultz’s past in deciding his future.

“We are not asking for forgiveness, but simply some understanding,” Vogel argued. “In this case, death is not appropriate.”

The six men and six women on the jury are expected to begin deliberations Monday to decide whether Schultz should be executed or go to prison for the rest of his life with no hope of parole.

Last month, the same jurors found Schultz guilty of first-degree murder and two special circumstance allegations of rape and burglary that make him eligible for the death penalty.

Jurors heard evidence of Burger’s slaying during the guilt phase of the trial, and this week heard evidence of Schultz’s childhood abuse, drug problems and other acts of violence. Jurors also heard gut-wrenching testimony from Burger’s relatives about the devastating effect that her slaying has had on their lives.

On Friday, lawyers asked jurors to weigh the mitigating factors, such as Shultz’s upbringing and drug addiction, against the aggravating ones, namely the viciousness of Burger’s slaying and emotional turmoil suffered by her family.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Simon urged jurors to consider at least nine prior assaults, including the 1996 battery of two police officers, when deciding which punishment to impose.

Simon primarily focused on the circumstances surrounding the Aug. 5, 1993, rape and slaying, which he called “every woman’s worst nightmare.”

At trial, Schultz did not dispute that he crept into Burger’s home, raped her in her bed and then strangled her with his bare hands. Nor did he dispute that he tried to cover up the assault by placing her body in a bathtub of chemicals and setting her bed on fire.

Investigators initially thought Burger died of smoke inhalation, but an autopsy revealed she had been strangled.

“Her life was in his hands and he chose to take it,” Simon said, arguing there was no evidence Schultz was high on drugs, as the defense suggested.

“There has been such an effort to blame this on narcotics,” Simon said. “He knew exactly what he was doing. He carefully cleaned up that crime scene.”

But Lipson, concluding a day of summations by both sides, cited witness testimony that Schultz used methamphetamine throughout 1993. He asked jurors to take his client’s drug use into consideration.

He also set out to debunk the prosecution theory that his client was a cold, calculating criminal who planned to rape and kill Burger.

“I am standing here pleading for Michael Schultz’s life,” Lipson said.

“Don’t kill a man for a theory that wasn’t proved.”