People v. Kraft8/10/2000
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, 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 northbo
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