Relatives express rage at killer of 2

As she confronted the shackled man who beheaded her neighbor and then mutilated her husband, Valerie Engelson stood in court Friday and called out to her slain spouse.

“I cry thinking of your last vision, scared, staring helplessly into the eyes of this demented beast, a total stranger from off the street,” she said in a voice that rang with rage. “I know your killer will die in prison one day alone in his cell, old at the end of a despicable life of horror. . . . Then off to hell.”

Engelson’s words came during an emotional courtroom scene as Keven Lee Graff, a 31-year-old former Marine, was sentenced to two life prison terms without the possibility of parole for slayings that shocked even veteran detectives.

Relatives of the victims -- Dr. Morley Engelson and onetime blacklisted screenwriter Robert Lees -- wept as they recounted their memories of the two men and questioned how Graff could have acted with such violence.

Graff, who avoided a possible death penalty by pleading guilty in February as part of a deal with prosecutors, responded that he had struggled to understand his actions.

“Other people say I’m mentally ill. Apparently I am, because who in their right mind could do something like this?” he said. “I can say I’m sorry, but sorry doesn’t cut it.”

Once a personal trainer and dancer, the now heavyset Graff said he practices yoga and studies religions. He vowed to spend the rest of his life trying to put “positive energy into the universe.”

“I love you, Keven! And I’m proud of you,” his father blurted out, choking back tears. “And we are sorry.”

“I love you, too,” Graff responded.

Mental health experts who examined Graff on behalf of defense attorneys concluded that he was mentally ill and suffered delusions that sometimes included a belief that he was Jesus Christ. Graff was receiving mental health treatment from the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Long Beach before the killings.

One psychologist said Graff’s disorder was brought on by “maternal abandonment and paternal cruelty.” But when medicated and monitored, clinical psychologist Barbara Cort Counter wrote, Graff “works to atone for his acts . . . by devoting himself to a life of containment, true spirituality and knowledge.”

The brutality of the June 2004 slayings in an upscale Hollywood neighborhood was shocking even in a city hardened to news of violence.

Prosecutors said Graff entered Lees’ home on Courtney Avenue through an unlocked door. Inside, he attacked Lees, 91, who co-wrote the 1948 comedy classic “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”

Graff took a meat cleaver from a kitchen drawer, severed Lees’ head and removed some of his organs.

He carried the head over a back fence to Engelson’s home on Stanley Avenue, between Hollywood and Sunset boulevards.

Engelson, 69, who practiced internal medicine in Beverly Hills for more than three decades, was on the phone making airline reservations for a business trip when Graff entered.

“Help me! Help me! Somebody help me!” the Southwest Airlines operator heard, according to a probation report on the case.

When the line went quiet, the operator called another number at the home and Graff answered. “Everything is fine now,” he said.

Police officers found Engelson dead in the house. His throat had been slit and his body mutilated. Both men had been sexually assaulted, the report said.

Helen Colton, Lees’ companion for nearly 23 years, arrived at his home later the same day and discovered his beheaded corpse. In court Friday, she described the event as a “horrible, numbing experience” and said the court hearing could not bring her closure.

“Being hugged by him always made me feel safe and protected,” Colton, 90, told Graff. “But [his arms] were not strong enough to ward off your blows.”

Colton and others urged Graff to use his time in prison to reflect on his crimes and understand why he committed them. And several said they felt a lifetime in prison was a just outcome.

As sheriff’s deputies led Graff out of court, his mother approached Engelson’s widow.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, her arms outstretched to embrace her.

Engelson stopped her. “Why did he do it?” she asked. But amid commotion of the courtroom clearing, she got no answer.

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jack.leonard@latimes.com