Man Admits to 1983 Killing

A Tennessee man walked into a Chattanooga sheriff’s station this week and said he wanted to report a homicide -- the one he committed 21 years ago in Riverside, authorities said.

Kenneth Duran Horne told detectives Tuesday that he was the man who gunned down Larry Crafts, the night manager of a Burger King, on Dec. 13, 1983, said Hamilton County Sheriff John A. Cupp Jr.

“He just confessed everything,” Cupp said. “It was just bothering him. It was on his mind, and he just wanted to get it off.”

In his confession, Horne, 46, said he had been out of jail for a year and was looking for money to buy drugs when he saw Crafts with what he thought was a bag of money, Cupp said. When the contents turned out to be a hamburger, Horne shot him.

On Thursday, Horne was being transported to Riverside after he waived his right to an extradition hearing. He has been charged with murder, authorities said.

Crafts was leaving the fast-food restaurant on Van Buren Boulevard near Cypress Avenue shortly before midnight when he was shot. A family friend found his body in the parking lot. He was 31 years old.

The case had remained unsolved because police did not have a suspect and did not know of any witnesses, according to the Riverside Police Department.

Alyce Crafts of Gualala, in Mendocino County, said she had given up hope that the person who killed her only child would be found. “I was just amazed that after this length of time we would hear anything,” Crafts said. “I just wanted to know who had done it and why.”

Five years ago, an inmate said he had information about the slaying, but it turned out to be a ruse to get a shorter sentence, she said. That was the last time she thought she would hear about the case.

“I always hoped it was someone who didn’t have a grudge against Larry,” she said.

Horne was charged Tuesday in Chattanooga with murder, use of a shotgun and for committing a crime during the course of a robbery, said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney. His arraignment date will be set when he returns.

Officials were convinced that Horne, who was a Moreno Valley resident at the time of the killing, was telling the truth when he provided details about the crime that “only the perpetrator would know,” Cupp said. Tennessee authorities verified the details with officials in Riverside County.

“We needed to make sure he didn’t just want a free trip to California,” Cupp said.