Rockefeller impostor murder verdict ‘just,’ prosecutor says
A prosecutor publicly hailed Wednesday’s murder conviction of a man who spent years evading police while pretending to be a member of the Rockefeller family, saying jurors had brought closure in the cold-case killing.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian, the lead prosecutor, said the largely circumstantial case had its challenges but that he was relieved jurors resolved the mystery of the killing of John Sohus, who disappeared from his San Marino home in 1985.
Jurors spent about a day deliberating before finding Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter guilty of first-degree murder.
FULL COVERAGE: Rockefeller imposter on trial
Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest house on the Lorain Road property where John Sohus, 27, and his wife, Linda, lived. He was accused of bludgeoning Sohus with a blunt object, burying his body in the backyard and then fleeing to the East Coast, where he lived under a series of false identities, including Clark Rockefeller. Linda has never been located.
-- Jack Leonard and Hailey Branson, Los Angeles Times