Appellate Court Lifts Its Order Halting Kraft Trial Proceedings

An appellate court order freezing all proceedings in the mass murder case of Randy Steven Kraft, pending a hearing on out-of-state evidence, was dropped Tuesday after both sides told the court that they had reached an agreement on the issue.

That means attorneys will return to Judge James K. Turner in Orange County Superior Court, probably next week, to take up once again the question of whether Kraft should be granted a trial delay.

The two sides were before Turner arguing that point in early July when the 4th District Court of Appeal abruptly halted proceedings over a different issue. Kraft’s attorneys had argued to the appellate court that they were not being allowed to independently view out-of-state evidence against their client.

Kraft, now 42, of Long Beach, was arrested May 14, 1983, when a dead Marine was found next to him in his car on the San Diego Freeway in Mission Viejo.

Additional 21 Slayings

He is charged with 16 murders in Orange County. But part of the district attorney’s case against him is an additional 21 slayings, including six in Oregon and two in Michigan.

Kraft attorney William J. Kopeny argued that Oregon officials would not guarantee the defense an independent review of physical evidence in those six cases. After the appellate court ordered a hearing on the issue, Deputy Dist. Atty. James P. Cloninger made arrangements for the evidence to be brought to Orange County for the defense to review.

Kopeny questioned why Cloninger “didn’t just do this in the first place and save everyone a lot of trouble.”

Cloninger answered: “I still think our position was right, that Mr. Kraft had no right to go around the laws in Oregon. But it was simply a matter of expediency. If we didn’t do something, we could be tied up on this issue at the end of 1987.”