Victim in fake Rockefeller murder trial died from blows to head
The man whose decomposed body was unearthed behind a San Marino home in 1994 suffered at least three hard blows to the head with a blunt, possibly curved object, a forensic pathologist testified Wednesday.
“When the actual injuries happened, the victim was still alive but died very quickly afterward,” Dr. Frank Sheridan, San Bernardino County chief medical examiner, told jurors.
The victim, prosecutors say, was 27-year-old John Sohus, who was bludgeoned by German-born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. Gerhartsreiter, who is on trial in a Los Angeles courtroom, has pleaded not guilty to the murder.
PHOTOS: Clark Rockefeller investigation
Defense attorneys have said they will not dispute that the bones were those of John Sohus or that Sohus was killed. The killing, attorney R. Bradford Bailey said, “is a classic case of whodunit.”
Shortly before vanishing in 1985, Sohus and his wife, Linda, had been living in the main house on the property where the bones were found. The couple lived with John Sohus’ mother, while Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest house. Gerhartsreiter later also disappeared, surfacing on the East Coast under a series of new names, including Clark Rockefeller.
-- Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times