People v. Kraft

Citation99 Cal.Rptr.2d 1,23 Cal.4th 978,5 P.3d 68
Decision Date10 August 2000
Docket NumberNo. S013187.,S013187.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (California)
PartiesThe PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Randy Steven KRAFT, Defendant and Appellant.

Richard Power, Berkeley, and Elizabeth Barranco, El Cajon, under appointments by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren and Bill Lockyer, Attorneys General, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Keith I. Motley, William M. Wood and Warren P. Robinson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

WERDEGAR, J.

An Orange County jury convicted defendant Randy Steven Kraft of the first degree murders of Edward Daniel Moore (count 1), "John Doe Huntington Beach" (count 2), Ronald Gene Wiebe (count 3), Keith Daven Crotwell (count 4), Mark Howard Hall (count 5), Scott Michael Hughes (count 6), Roland Gerald Young (count 7), Richard Allen Keith (count 8), Keith Arthur Klingbeil (count 9), Michael Joseph Inderbieten (count 11), Donald Harold Crisel (count 12), Robert Wyatt Loggins, Jr. (count 13), Eric Herbert Church (count 14), Geoffrey Alan Nelson (count 16), Rodger James DeVaul, Jr. (count 18), and Terry Lee Gambrel (count 19). (Pen. Code, ? 187; unless otherwise specified, all statutory references are to the Penal Code.) The jury further convicted defendant of the sodomy of Inderbieten (count 10) (? 286) and inflicting mayhem on Nelson (count 15) (? 203). The jury found true an allegation that defendant had personally inflicted great bodily injury in committing sodomy against Inderbieten (? 12022.7) and the related special-circumstance allegation of murder in the commission of sodomy (? 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(D)). With respect to counts 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, and 19, the jury also found true special circumstance allegations of multiple murder (? 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). The jury acquitted defendant of the charge of sodomy against DeVaul (count 17) and the related special-circumstance allegation. The jury subsequently fixed the penalty at death.

The trial court granted defendant's motion to vacate as duplicative 10 of the 11 multiple-murder special-circumstance findings and denied his motion to modify the verdict to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. (? 190.4, subd. (e).) The court sentenced defendant to death for counts 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, and 19; it further imposed consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in state prison for counts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5,1 but stayed service of those sentences pending execution of the death sentence. The court also imposed the middle term of three years for the sodomy conviction in count 10, with a consecutive term of three years for the related great bodily injury enhancement, and the middle term of four years for the mayhem conviction in count 15, and stayed service of the determinate terms pending execution of the death sentence and service of the life sentences. This appeal is automatic. (? 1239, subd. (b).)

We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

I. Facts
A. Guilt Phase Evidence
1. Overview

Defendant was convicted of murdering 16 young White males between December 1972 and May 1983. Six of the victims were United States Marines. Most were killed by ligature strangulation, and many had ligature marks on their wrists. Defendant sexually mutilated some of the victims, engaged in sexual activity with some of them, and left the bodies of some victims unclothed. Most of the victims had alcohol and prescription drugs (most frequently diazepam, which is sold as Valium) in their systems at the time of death. Defendant left the bodies of most of the victims on or near freeways or other roads. Physical evidence linked defendant to eight of the murders, but with respect to the remainder, the prosecution relied on the similarity of the modus operandi and the existence of the so-called death list?-¦ cryptic notebook entries, penned by defendant, that the prosecution asserted represented the various victims.

2. Murder of Terry Lee Gambrel

Around 1:00 a.m. on May 14, 1983, Sergeant Michael Howard and Officer Michael Sterling of the California Highway Patrol, on patrol together near Interstate 5 in the San Juan Capistrano area of Orange County, were driving northbound on the freeway south of Oso Parkway when they saw a car driven by defendant weaving in its lane. The officers pulled defendant over and, after conducting field sobriety tests, arrested him for driving under the influence. (The details of the arrest are discussed post, at pages 39-40, in connection with defendant's challenge to the search of his car.) Defendant told Sterling his passenger was a hitchhiker. While Sterling was placing defendant in the patrol car, Sergeant Howard knocked on the passenger window of defendant's car in an attempt to rouse the passenger, who appeared to be asleep or passed out. There was no response. Howard, entering the car through the driver's side, discovered the passenger, later identified as Gambrel, had no pulse and was not breathing. Upon lifting a jacket from Gambrel's lap, Howard observed that Gambrel's pants were unbuttoned and pulled down between his waist and his knees so that his penis and testicles were supported by the crotch of the pants. The crotch area was wet. There were indentations on Gambrel's wrists similar to those a wide rubber band would make. A pill vial, labeled Ativan and prescribed for defendant, lay on the floor between the driver's seat and door.

A paramedic summoned to the scene asked defendant if Gambrel had taken any drugs; defendant replied he had given Gambrel some of his Ativan.

The autopsy was performed by Dr. Walter Fischer, who was deceased at the time of trial. Dr. Robert Richards, who reviewed the autopsy photographs and Dr. Fischer's reports and testimony at the preliminary hearing, testified at trial that Gambrel's death resulted from asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. The ligature consisted of a strap that had been tightened around Gambrel's neck. There were also ligature marks on both of Gambrel's wrists. Petechial hemorrhages in the neck organs indicated the killer had repeatedly tightened and loosened the ligature. Autopsy photographs showed a bruise on Gambrel's lip. Gambrel's body apparently was missing shoes and socks when removed from defendant's car.

Toxicological analysis showed Gambrel's blood-alcohol level at the time of his death was 0.067 percent. Also in Gambrel's blood was .07 micrograms per milliliter of lorazepam, an anti-anxiety drug sold under the trade name Ativan. Toxicologist Raymond Kelly testified those levels of alcohol and lorazepam would tend to make a person sleepy, confused and uncoordinated.

Gambrel was 25 years old at the time of his death and was a United States Marine stationed at El Toro. He stood six feet one inch in height and weighed about 200 pounds.2 Gambrel was engaged to be married. He was last seen alive on May 13, 1983, around 9:00 p.m., when he told his roommate he needed to find a ride and mentioned something about a party at a friend's house. Marine Sergeant Ronald Phillips had invited Gambrel to a house-warming party set for May 13, 1983, but Gambrel did not attend despite having said he intended to do so. Handwritten directions to the party were found in Gambrel's wallet after his death.

3. Murder and Mayhem of Geoffrey Alan Nelson

On the night of Friday, February 11, 1983, between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m., Bryce Wilson saw Geoffrey Alan Nelson and Rodger James DeVaul, Jr. outside Wilson's home in Cypress, Orange County. When Wilson last saw the two, DeVaul was wearing Nelson's jacket. Neither Nelson nor DeVaul had consumed alcohol or drugs before leaving Wilson. About 1:30 a.m. on February 12, 1983, Nelson appeared at Wilson's front door and asked Wilson's mother, Sharon House, if he could speak with Wilson. She was unable to awaken Wilson, however, and Nelson left without speaking to him.

About 5:15 that morning, Officer Donald Batchelder of the Los Angeles Police Department, who was off duty and driving to work, discovered Nelson's nude body on the Euclid Street on-ramp to the Garden Grove Freeway in the City of Garden Grove. As Batchelder got out of his car, he saw Nelson's foot move slightly. Batchelder got back into his car, drove to a telephone and called the local police.

Officer Richard Morales of the Garden Grove Police Department responded to the scene and found the body warm to the touch, although he detected no pulse or respiration. Skid marks on the pavement indicated Nelson's body had been dumped from a moving vehicle. The front of Nelson's neck bore ligature marks, and he had been emasculated.

Dr. Fischer performed the autopsy. After reviewing autopsy photographs and Fischer's notes and preliminary hearing testimony, Dr. Richards concluded Nelson had died as a result of ligature strangulation. There was a ligature mark on the neck consistent with a belt buckle. Nelson's right wrist also bore a ligature mark. Dr. Richards found that Nelson's penis and scrotum had been cut off by some type of sharp-edged instrument. Because the bleeding was "not that great," Richards thought Nelson was "probably dead" when the injury was inflicted, although the emasculation could have occurred perimortem, or around the time of death. Skid marks and road burns on the body reflected Nelson was dead at the time of those injuries.

Toxicological analysis revealed Nelson's blood-alcohol level to be 0.14 percent at the time of death. Nelson's blood also contained the anti-anxiety drug diazepam, and his stomach contained propranolol, a cardiac drug available only by prescription. Toxicologist Kelly opined the combination of diazepam and alcohol would have "very, very noticeably sedated" Nelson and could have caused him to fall asleep.

Criminalist James White of the Orange County Sheriffs Department compared a fiber found on Nelson's body with the...

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