Attorneys have agreed to a March date for the murder trial of Christian Gerhartsreiter, accused of bludgeoning LASFS member John Sohus to death in 1985.
Gerhartsreiter, aka Clark Rockefeller, was extradited to California from Massachusetts in 2011. He was already serving time there for kidnapping his daughter.
A hearing in Alhambra Superior Court last January persuaded a judge there is sufficient evidence for Gerhartsreiter to be tried on the murder charges.
[Thanks to DB for the story.]
The judge agreed there was enough evidence to try Christian Gerhartsreiter on charges of murdering John Sohus in 1985 after a week-long hearing where prosecutors called 23 witnesses.
Among the last to be questioned was Mihoko Manabe. She knew Gerhartsreiter by his alias Christopher Crowe and during his transformation to Clark Rockefeller. They dated and lived together until about 1994, after meeting while working at a NYC securities firm. The LA Times reports:
In 1988, Mihoko Manabe received a call at her New York apartment from a Connecticut detective looking for her live-in boyfriend, a man she knew by the name Christopher Crowe. She took a message and hung up.
When she gave Crowe the message, their lives were turned upside down, Manabe recalled in court Tuesday. The boyfriend told her that the person who called wasn’t with the police, but a bad guy who was after him. He dyed his hair and eyebrows blond, grew a beard, and insisted they shred documents. They began using P.O. boxes for their mail, threw away their garbage at public shopping malls and walked on opposite sides of the street.
Some months after, Manabe testified, he began using the name that would later gain national notoriety — Clark Rockefeller.
Gerhartsreiter will next appear February 9 in Alhambra Superior Court.
On the third day of hearings to determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter will stand trial for the 1985 slaying of John Sohus – Friday, January 21 – an LA Times reporter interpreted the defense attorneys’ questions as an indication their strategy may be to raise doubt by blaming Linda Sohus, the murder victim’s missing wife.
Brad Bailey, a lawyer for Gerhartsreiter, questioned witnesses about tension between Sohus and his wife. Friends said the newlyweds shared a love of science fiction but had money problems and struggled with the possibility of moving out of Sohus’ mother’s home. Linda Sohus’ remains have never been found, however, authorities presume she is dead.
Patrick Rayermann, a former Army colonel who said he had known Sohus since the sixth grade, testified that he last saw John and Linda Sohus in January 1985, when the three met for dinner. Bailey asked Rayermann about the difference in stature between the newlywed couple.
“She was the larger of the couple,” Rayermann replied, saying she was 6 or 7 inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier. “It was noticeable,” he said.
Ravermann said Linda appeared to have had disagreements with John’s mother.
“John was torn between his loyalty to his mother and his desire to continue to help her in her more older years, and his desire to establish his own independent household with Linda,” Rayermann said.
Lydia Marano, who employed Linda at Dangerous Visions bookstore in Sherman Oaks bookstore, was called as a witness. A Boston Globe story says:
Several times a week, John would visit Linda at the Sherman Oaks book store where she worked. There, the couple would snuggle, kiss, and hold hands, Lydia Marano, the store owner, said in court. “It made the rest of us smile,’’ she said.
Linda was generally upbeat but living with Didi wore on her, Marano said….
The last time Marano spoke to Linda, it was to tell her she planned to be away for a long weekend and to ask if Linda would open the bookstore for her. Linda agreed, but when Marano came by the shop that Sunday, it was closed. Linda had not come by at all, Marano said, something that was uncharacteristic of her employee. “She was the most trustworthy person I had working for me,’’ Marano said….
But months after they disappeared, the couple’s clothing was still strewn about their room, testified Didi Sohus’s grandson, Harry Sherwood, who visited San Marino in 1985. Linda’s paintings and art supplies remained. In the bathroom was a brand-new box of insulin that belonged to John, a diabetic.
“It just looked like someone was gone for the day, and not gone forever,’’ Sherwood said.
That year, Marano received a postcard from Paris. “Not quite New York, but not bad,’’ the message said. It was signed by the couple.
Marano, who never heard Linda talk about going to New York or Paris, said she had no idea what the message meant.
Also, a forensic scientist testified about four bloodstains found in the guesthouse on Didi Sohus’ property, where Gerhartsreiter lived as a tenant. She also testified that a T-shirt found with the skeleton had several cuts that appeared to have been made by a sharp object.
The fourth day of hearings — Monday, January 23 — brought testimony from an elderly couple who identified Gerhartsreiter as the man who tried to sell them a blood-stained rug, and also the person who received John Sohus’ white pickup truck from Gerhartsreiter. The LA Times reports:
…A man who knew Gerhartsreiter in Connecticut around 1988, then by the name Christopher Crowe, testified that the man gave him a white pickup truck that he later learned was linked to a missing person’s investigation in California.
Christopher Bishop, an Episcopal priest who was at the time a struggling film student, said Gerhartsreiter, who claimed to be a film producer, gave him a truck he said he had used in a movie production and no longer needed.
Authorities have said the truck belonged to John Sohus, who abruptly went missing along with his wife, Linda, around the time Gerhartsreiter left San Marino.
The Pasadena Star-News story, here, gives additional details of the fourth day of testimony.
Prosecutors continued establishing the identity of the victim and defendant during the second day of hearings which will determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter stands trial on charges of murdering John Sohus in 1985.
A former neighbor from San Marino identified the defendant as Christopher Chichester, the name he went by when he was Didi Sohus’ tenant.
Then two police officers testified about contacts leading up to the filing of a missing persons report for John and his wife, Linda. Thomas Leveque, currently an Arcadia Police Department lieutenant and a San Marino police officer in 1985, received the report in April 1985 from Linda Sohus’ sister.
Leveque added that he was told by John’s mother, Didi Sohus, that the couple were on a secret mission. The Pasadena Star-News quotes:
“She said she could get in touch, but would not furnish information,” Leveque said. “She said she had written to them and could contact them and the unknown source could reach them.”
Lili Hadsell, now Baldwin Park’s police chief, but a San Marino police officer in 1985, said she spoke to Ruth Sohus several times before finally making a police report in July.
There also is a story about today’s hearing in the LA Times.
A bulldozer operator testified how he discovered a skull in a San Marino backyard in 1994 on the first day of hearings to determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter will stand trial for the 1985 murder of LASFS member John Sohus.
Prosecutors also called a witness to help verify that the skull and other skeletal remains uncovered by authorities are those of Sohus. Identification was complicated by the fact that he was adopted reports the LA Times:
Prosecutors on Wednesday moved toward establishing that the skeleton was Sohus’, calling to the stand a half-sister who said she never knew of the man’s existence. Lori Moltz, 55, said in brief testimony that a sheriff’s deputy came to her home in late 2008 to take a swab from the inside of her mouth. She also testified that she recognized her mother’s handwriting on John Sohus’ birth and adoption records.
There was another interesting byplay when a defense attorney asked Superior Court Judge Jared Moses for permission to keep calling Gerhartsreiter by his alias, Clark Rockefeller. Moses refused, quoted in the Times saying “I honestly have never seen a circumstance where a defendant is referred to in court by one of his AKAs.”
Christian Gerhartsreiter, charged with the 1985 murder of LASFS member John Sohus, will have his preliminary hearing on January 18, 2012. An Alhambra Superior Court judge set the date at a hearing on October 17. It has already been delayed twice, reports the San Marino Patch:
Defense attorney Brad Bailey told Patch Monday that he estimates the hearing will last six days.
During the preliminary hearing the prosecution presents evidence and the judge decides if enough exists for the case to go to trial. The defense previously said they expect the case to go to trial.
Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian requested the date aloud in the courtroom Monday and defense attorneys Brad Bailey, Jeffrey Denner and Kenneth Kahn agreed, as did Gerhartsreiter, to the hearing date.
The defense has received 11,000 pages of discovery for the case as well as several DVDs and video tapes.
Christian Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a Clark Rockefeller, was arraigned in an Alhambra, CA courtroom on July 8. The LA Times reports he entered a not guilty plea to the charge that he murdered LASFS member John Sohus in 1985. He only spoke to say “yes” when the prosecutor asked if he would waive his right to a speedy trial and preliminary hearing.
The judge ordered Gerhartsreiter held without bail until August 16, when he will return to court and a date will be set for his preliminary hearing.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller, was picked up in Boston by Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives and flown to California on July 6. He will be arraigned July 8 on charges of murdering John Sohus says sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. Bail is expected to be set at $10 million.
An Associated Press story adds:
One of Gerhartsreiter’s Boston attorneys, Jeffrey Denner, said his client will plead not guilty…
“We’re all anxious to get this going. It’s time for it to be resolved,” Denner said. “He continues to maintain that he had nothing to do with the murder of Mr. Sohus.”
…Denner has said Gerhartsreiter said he “has no idea” what happened to Jonathan and Linda Sohus and insists he had nothing to do with the couple’s disappearance.
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, a.k.a. Clark Rockefeller, will face trial in California on charges of murdering LASFS member John Sohus in 1985. He is also a suspect in the disappearance of Sohus’ wife Linda, whose body has never been found.
Already serving 5 years in Massachusetts for kidnapping his daughter, Gerhartsreiter reportedly will not fight extradition to California to face murder charges.
He will not arrive in California as soon as authorities expected, however:
“We don’t have an exact date,” said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. “There’s a delay, but we’re making progress. It will be a month to a month-an-a-half.”
A recently published book, The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal, attempts to unravel the tissue of lies wrapped around the imposter’s life. Says the LA Times review:
Seal, who first tumbled down the Gerhartsreiter rabbit hole when profiling him for Vanity Fair, shows how the imposter used his computer skills, personal magnetism, pedigree dog and even his cherubic daughter to worm his way into elite circles. Like many con men, Gerhartsreiter had a preternatural ability to suss out individuals susceptible to his fabrications, who would then vouch for him and open doors.
But as Seal points out, even in pre-Google times, basic library research would have revealed that Gerhartsreiter wasn’t the 13th Baronet of Chichester, grandson of Lord Mountbatten, owner of England’s Chichester Cathedral, producer of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents Presents,” a Yale/Harvard grad or owner of the Mondrians, Rothkos and Motherwells on his walls.
Christian Gerhartsreiter has been charged with the murder of John Sohus. Sohus’ remains were found in 1994, buried in the backyard of a San Marino home that once belonged to his mother. Gerhartsreiter, living under an assumed name, had been a tenant in the Sohus’ guesthouse.
John and his wife Linda, both LASFS members, disappeared in 1985. Linda is still missing.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office filed the charges on March 15. In the single-count indictment prosecutors allege Gerhartsreiter used a “blunt object” to kill John Sohus.
The Boston Herald reports that prosecutors are seeking Gerhartsreiter’s arrest and extradition from Massachusetts, where he is serving time for kidnapping his daughter during a custody dispute:
Ellen Sohus, John Sohus’s younger sister, said she received a call from Los Angeles authorities earlier this afternoon telling her about the charges against Gerhartsreiter.
“We feel like that this has been a very, very long ordeal over the last 25 years and it gives us hope that we will have closure, finally,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Arizona.
The statement by prosecutors today was the first time they had acknowledged that they had determined the remains found in the yard belonged to John Sohus.
Gerhartsreiter’s lawyer, Jeffrey Denner, who represented him during his kidnapping trial, said his client is innocent.
Christian Gerhartsreiter was living under the name Clark Rockefeller when he was arrested on charges of kidnapping his daughter. He has admitted being “Christopher Chichester”, previously sought as a “person of interest” in the Sohus disappearance.
Vanity Fair, in a 2009 article, said that during the 1994 search “along with human bones, investigators found a flannel shirt and blue jeans, John Sohus’s standard dress. (Using the chemical luminol, they also detected traces of blood on the floor of Chichester’s apartment.)”