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People v. Kraft8/10/2000
ald Batchelder of the Los Angeles Police Department, who was off duty and driving to work, discovered Nelson's nude body on the Euclid 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 Sheriff's Department compared a fiber found on Nelson's body with the maroon socks of victim Eric Church, whose body had been found on January 27, 1983. White had only a single fiber and could compare only a longitudinal microscopic view; on that basis he concluded the fibers were consistent in color and diameter.
The defense presented evidence that on February 11, 1983, one of Nelson's friends saw him drinking beer and taking Valium tablets. A friend of defendant's testified defendant had played bridge from about 7:00 p.m. to midnight on February 11, 1983. The next day, defendant worked from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. as a computer programmer, on an assignment at St. Ives Laboratory in Palos Verdes. According to a co-worker who was also at St. Ives that day, defendant appeared normal, not disheveled or injured, when he arrived for work. The defense also presented testimony by a female impersonator who worked in a gay bar and who believed a photograph of Nelson depicted a man the witness had met in a bar and with whom he had had a sexual relationship. Detective Shave, however, testified the witness's identification of Nelson as that man was mistaken.
At the time of his death, Nelson, a single White male, was 18 years old. He stood five feet nine inches tall and weighed 129 pounds.
4. Murder of Rodger DeVaul
As noted above, Bryce Wilson saw Rodger DeVaul, together with Geoffrey Nelson, outside Wilson's house in Cypress on the evening of February 11, 1983.
About 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, 1983, a motorist who was driving in the San Bernardino Mountains stopped at a turnout near Glendora Ridge and Mt. Baldy Road. There he saw a dead body lying off the road down a hillside. Deputy James Davis of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, responding to the scene,
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