Kraft Attorney

The first week of testimony in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial ended Thursday with a parade of evidence from Kraft's Long Beach home and observations by both the judge and a prosecutor that the trial was moving forward at a much faster pace than had been anticipated. Investigators and criminalists marched into court Thursday with sack after sack of evidence taken from Kraft's home following his arrest on May 14, 1983.

The makeup of the jury for the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial changed Wednesday to 10 women and 2 men after the judge agreed to excuse one of the male jurors for hardship reasons. Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin also replaced one of the eight alternate jurors. The juror and the alternate had asked to be excused after discovering the length of the Kraft trial would cause them problems at their jobs.

When Clayton A. Church of rural Coventry, Conn., testified at Randy Steven Kraft's preliminary hearing, he thought a jury would decide soon whether Kraft had killed 16 young men, including Church's son. That was five years ago. "This trial is like a cloud hanging over our heads," Church said of his family. "We kept thinking it would finally happen. Then we'd wait till the next year, and the next."

Attorneys for Randy Steven Kraft, who is charged with 16 Orange County murders, asked a judge Friday to let them set up a laboratory for a seven-month to one-year examination of physical evidence in the case. It was the first public hint that the court-appointed defense attorneys don't expect to be ready for Kraft's Jan. 12, 1987, trial date. One of the defense attorneys, C. Thomas McDonald, said later that "we're working just as fast as we can to be ready."